My First Craft Show

I had my very first craft show experience this weekend with the lovely, Sandy a la Mode.

The show didn't have the traffic we had hoped for so not a ton of sales, but it was a good learning experience & we had a great time with Sandy & her husband! 

Sandy & I shared a booth--a shot of our booth :)

a closeup of some of my headbands, clips & props--love the old pepsi crate that i used for hair clips

rosette barrettes in fun spring colors--soon to be added to the shop!

simple pleated totes--another new item i plan to add to the shop soon!  hanging them along the wall was an impromptu decision that thankfully worked out well! tip: always bring extra rope ;)

bringing back the hobo satchel in some fun spring designs! the satchel is displayed on a bamboo tripod that ben devised :)

more pleated totes, i looooooved the way they looked against the brick wall!

my most popular item:: windswept wristlets!  

another angle of the display, i used chalkboard signs to display my name & pricing :)

i love my husband!  he endured a day full of craft fair goodness all in support of me:) and helped me with some cool displays that i could not have done without him!

Overall it was a really good learning experience.

Things I took away:

1. Make sure you know your venue & what kind of crowd it will draw.  This was the biggest problem of this fair.  It seemed the persons in charge didn't advertise well or much & thus there wasn't much traffic.  Also, it wasn't a "handmade only" fair, so there was a lot of disparity between what Sandy & I were selling & what others were selling--I thinking having more cohesive vendors might draw a better crowd. I don't know, just a first timer's thoughts ;)

2. Know your space.  Set up a demo- I did a mini demo & this time it worked out pretty well, but I think I could do a better job in the future of doing a mock set-up before hand.  Specifically with my purses & totes...I felt there was too much distance between them & our vendor table.

3. Always bring business cards.  I was able to hand out business cards to a lot of the other vendors & also the people who came to the fair--I've already connected with a couple of other sellers through my biz cards, so I was happy about that!

4. Have fun & bring fun people with you.  My husband, Sandy & her husband made the fair for me.  Having fun people around helps to pass the slow times & keeps you encouraged even when you may not be bringin in the big bucks ;)

5.  I decided to try out a lot of new products for the fair.  Even though I didn't see a huge amount of sales, I did note what the people who stopped by were looking at & this helped give me a good idea of what might go over well in the shop!

All in all, I had a fun time.  I really didn't know if this fair would have a good turnout & I guess my suspicions were right, so I wasn't really all that disappointed.  Besides, like I said--I had FUN people with me to pass the time ;)  We also went to Oklahoma Joe's with Sandy & her husband after the fair, so all in all we left having had a lot of fun, met up with sweet people & with full bellies. 

 And that my friends, is success.