In My Studio: Craft Fair Prep

So Handmade Christmas Tree Skirts at a craft fair

I am frantically getting ready for my first craft fair of the season at the moment. There are many holiday fairs that start around now and continue almost every weekend until Christmas. These holiday fairs can be the most lucrative time of year for selling and can also provide a great opportunity to network and market your business.

I was looking at an old blog post I did about craft fair prep and thought it would be good to share it again.

Here are some tips and challenges:

1. Which Holiday Fairs: Choosing the holiday fairs to participate in is the first challenge. Balancing the sometimes high cost of a spot with the potential for earnings. A great way to gauge which fairs are good and which to avoid is by talking to fellow vendors and don't overstretch yourself by applying for one every weekend between now and Christmas, pace yourself. On the weekends in between go and visit local fairs to see if doing them the following year might be worthwhile. Look at the other potential costs involved or doing the fairs such as the distance to the fair, hotel costs if it's a two day affair etc.

2. Plan your space. Once you have decided which fairs to do look at the size and shape of the booth you have been allocated. A good way to plan your booth is to mark it out on the floor of your house with masking tape. Arrange your booth furniture in the space allocated making sure that you are aware of where the flow of people will come and make your space easy to negotiate. A booth that's too cluttered will put people off from entering, make sure it's open enough to entice customers.

Does your set up require an electrical outlet and where will it be? Remember to give yourself a designated space/ chair to sit, the fairs can stretch on and on and on and being comfortable is important. Take photos of your mock up so you can easily replicate it on the day. Finally make sure all the booth furniture is manageable and will fit into your car, doing extra trips costs more and wastes precious set up time.

3. Tablecloths: Make sure you have table cloths that cover the front and any visible sides of your tables all the way to the ground. This makes your space look more professional and also gives a great storage space for things you don't want to be on view. Choose the color wisely to best show off your products.

My craft fair display

4. Presentation: Work out beforehand where your products are going to go and if you need special stands/ baskets for them. Play around with the layout and once you are happy take photos so you can remember. Keep your products clean, ironed and stored carefully, presenting dusty, creased products at the fair will not help your sales.

5. Branding: Label your stand with your business name as visible as possible. Banners are a great way of doing this, Staples and other stationary stores are often giving good deals on printing them. Keep business cards easily accessible to visitors and put one in every customers bag. Donating an item to the obligatory raffle is also a good way of getting visibility for you business. Remember to have out a visitors book for e-mail addresses so you can start to build up a mailing list.

6. Price your products with labels that are easily visible, do this before the show to save time but also remember extra labels for any products you missed or for any changes/ discounts you want to make on the day.

7. Payment Options: Remember to bring with you a cash box with as much petty cash as possible, at least $50-$100 in a variety of different denominations and change. Look into ways that you can accept non-cash payments, this might be on a smart phone or iPad with a Square/Etsy card reader or similar but be aware of the additional costs. Remember to add the states sales tax to every purchase made, bring a calculator to easily work this out. Register online to file these payments.

8. Be your own advertisement: If possible wear one of your products (if it's jewelry or apparel) and remember to tell people that its available.

9. Don't Forget:

• Plastic or paper bags for customers purchases and packaging such as bubble wrap or tissue paper if needed 
• Business cards, banners and other branding items 
• Calculator, receipt book and notebook to keep track of sales 
• Pens, pins, safety pins, scissors, string, tape, small sewing kit 
• Food and drink to keep you going and a book for slow times 
• Extension lead for electrical supply if needed
• iPhone/card reader and cash box

I used my cart as a handy packaging station 

10. Network: Lastly don't forget to tell people where you will be at the weekend, make sure all your family and friends are going to visit the holiday fair and especially your booth. Post details of your schedule online and encourage visitors with promises of cookies!

Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.
Alexander Graham Bell

Good Luck and Good Making!

Sarah Omura - So Handmade

In My Studio: Getting ready for the Holiday Season

Yes I know its only the beginning of September but right now my studio looks like the Christmas Fairy has taken up residence!

This is the prime time of year to get prepared for the busy holiday season. My little boy is going back to school and after a wonderful summer - with very little work happening- it's time to get back to the grindstone and get making. My busy selling period on Etsy is the time from mid October through till mid December and getting ready for this is crucial.

In order to prepare for a busy holiday season of craft fairs and Etsy sales here are some tips to make the next few months the most successful.

1. It goes without saying to ensure that you have enough product to sell. Do a stock take of your current inventory.


2. Look at your sales for the same period last year. What sold well and what didn't.

3. Look at what craft fairs you are doing and what products do best in these locations.

4. Write a list and prioritize your making paying attention to the items that sold well and leaving out those that didn't.

5. Stock up on materials you will need to complete all the products in your list.

6. If you make a lot of holiday products buying in the sales after last years holidays can save a lot of money, otherwise lots of online stores sell Christmas craft supplies all year around.

7. If you sell on Etsy during this period make sure you have all the packaging materials you will need such as boxes, tissue paper, business cards and labels.

8. Once you have your products ready take your photographs well ahead of time and work on your Etsy pages.

  

I was looking back at some of my previous blogs and felt these might also be useful to mention:

In My Studio: Craft Fair Preparations tips on preparing for the many holiday craft fairs coming up.

and if like me you are juggling many hats here are some tips on ways to save time throughout a busy day. In My Studio: Time Saving Tips

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe" Abraham Lincoln

Good Luck and Good Making!

Sarah Omura

So Handmade

Holiday Gingerbread from Mohonk Moutain House Resort

The beautiful Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, NY has revealed their 2013 Gingerbread House creations for the season. This year’s gingerbread house takes it inspiration from Candy Land, the classic family board game first released in 1949.

Mohonk's professional chefs used a rainbow of luster sprays, candy rocks, fruit stripe gum, and chocolate kisses to create this year's sweet vision. The house took more than 300 hours to craft at Mohonk's historic New York Victorian castle resort, an effort accomplished by Executive Pastry Chef Eric Smith and his talented team.

Creating this wonderland requires no short list of ingredients! Think 325 pounds sugar, 100 pounds of flour, 100 eggs, 100 pounds of four, 60 pounds of egg whites and 30 pounds of candy!

The folks at Mohonk would like to share with our readers a special recipe on their take of healthy Ginerbread cookies.
 
Mohonk’s Healthy Gingerbread Cookies

½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
¾ cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground cloves
½ tsp. salt
1 large egg + 2 large egg whites, lightly beaten
¾ cup molasses
3 ½ cups whole-wheat flour
White frosting (optional, for decoration)
Almonds, pine nuts, dried cranberries, and raisins (optional, for decoration)

In a large bowl, mix butter and applesauce until blended. Add sugar, baking soda, spices, and salt. Stir in egg and egg whites. Mix in molasses and add flour. Cover and refrigerate dough for 2 hours. Preheat oven to 350°F. Mist 2 baking sheets with canola oil spray; set aside. Remove and roll out dough to ¼” thick. Use a 2” to 4” gingerbread cookies cutter to make shapes. Re-roll scraps of dough as necessary. Place cut-outs on prepared baking sheets 1” apart. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 20 to 30 minutes and decorate with frosting, nuts, and dried fruit, if desired. Makes 48 mini-cookies.
The annual gingerbread house is just one of many special holiday traditions at Mohonk Mountain House, located about 90 miles north of New York City.

Gift Tags from the Hudson Valley Etsy Team

Free Gift Tag Design!

A free printable for you from your friends and crafters of the Hudson Valley Etsy Street Team!  Some winter mice are all ready to celebrate the season in these gift tags by member Jody Lee of a Studio by the Sea.  All you need is a printer, card stock paper, and something to cut out the tags with. 

 Click here to link to the pdf file to download.

Instructions:

1. Print out the downloaded file on a sheet of card stock
2. Cut out each tag along the pale green lines - use scissors, x-acto knife & ruler or paper cutter.
3. Punch out holes with a hole punch or just attach to your gift with tape or glue.

Happy Holidays!

All images © Jody A Lee 2013

www.astudiobythesea.etsy.com

This gift tag sheet is for your personal use only
All commercial use is prohibited

In My Studio: Craft Fair Preparations

Hudson Valley Etsy Team Holiday Craft Fair in 2012

This time last year I was frantically trying to get products together to participate in my first ever holiday craft fair with my business So Handmade. The plethora of holiday fairs start as early as October and happen almost every weekend until Christmas. These holiday fairs can be the most lucrative time of year for selling and can also provide a great opportunity to network and market your business. I learned some valuable lessons starting out on this circuit last year so want to share some of challenges and tips for any new sellers out there:

1. Which Holiday Fairs: Choosing the holiday fairs to participate in is the first challenge. Balancing the sometimes high cost of a spot with the potential for earnings. Wondering if doing the local church/ school fair would be beneficial or a waste of time. As a newbie to this scene I don't have any great advice for choosing your fairs but have found that talking to fellow vendors is a great way to gauge which fairs are good and which to avoid. Don't overstretch yourself by applying for one every weekend between now and Christmas, pace yourself. On the weekends in between go and visit local fairs to see if doing them the following year might be worthwhile. Look at the other potential costs involved of doing the fairs such as the distance away from home, hotel costs if it's a two day affair etc.
      
2. Plan your space. Once you have decided which fairs to do look at the size and shape of the booth you have been allocated, mark it out on the floor of your house with masking tape. Arrange your booth furniture in the space allocated making sure that you are aware of where the flow of people will come in and out making your space easy to negotiate. A booth that's too cluttered will put people off from entering, make sure it's open enough to entice customers. Does your set up require an electrical outlet and where will it be?
   Remember to give yourself a designated space and a chair to sit, the fairs can stretch on and on and on and being comfortable is important. Take photos of your mock up so you can easily replicate it on the day. Finally make sure all the booth furniture is manageable and will fit into your car, doing extra trips costs more and wastes precious set up time.
   
   
3. Tablecloths: Make sure you have tablecloths that cover the front and any visible sides of your tables all the way to the ground. This makes your space look more professional and also gives a great storage space for things you don't want to be on view. Choose the color wisely to best show off your products.
   
   
4. Presentation: Work our beforehand where your products are going to go and if you need special stands/ baskets for them. Play around with the layout and once you are happy take photos so you can remember. Keep your products clean, ironed  and stored carefully, presenting dusty, creased products at the fair will not help your sales.
   
   
5. Branding: Label your stand with your business name as visible as possible. Banners are a great way of doing this, Staples and other stationary stores are often giving good deals on printing them. Keep business cards easily accessible to visitors and put one in every customers bag. Donating an item to the obligatory raffle  is also a good way of getting visibility for you business. Remember to have a visitors book for e-mail addresses so you can start to build up a mailing list.
   
   

   

   Banner for Rockerbox Garlic

6. Price your products with labels that are easily visible, do this before the show to save time but also remember extra labels for any products you missed or for any changes/ discounts you want to make on the day.
   
   
7. Payment Options: Remember to bring with you a cash box with as much petty cash as possible, at least $50-$100 in a variety of different denominations and change. Look into ways that you can accept non-cash payments, this might be on a smart phone or ipad with a square register or similar but be aware of the additional costs. Remember to add the states sales tax to every purchase made, bring a calculator to easily work this out. Register online to file these payments.
   
   
8. Be your own advertisement: If possible wear one of your products (if it's jewelry or apparel) and remember to tell people that its available. 
   
   

   

   Me wearing one of my half aprons at a holiday craft fair

   
   
9. Don't Forget:

• Plastic or paper bags for customers purchases and packaging such as bubble wrap or tissue paper if needed
• Business cards, banners and other branding items 
• Calculator, receipt book and notebook to keep track of sale
• Pens, pins, safety pins, scissors, string, tape, small sewing kit 
• Food and drink to keep you going and a book for slow times 
• Extension lead for electrical supply if needed

10. Network: Lastly don't forget to tell people where you will be at the weekend, make sure all your family and friends are going to visit the holiday fair and especially your booth. Post details of your schedule online and encourage visitors with promises of cookies!

Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.

Alexander Graham Bell

Good Luck and Good Making!

Sarah Omura

So Handmade

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SOhandmade1

Holiday Baking with Kids

Blue Snow Cookie Trees

When I baked with my kids, both of them had an egg allergy.  Since you don't want your children eating raw eggs when they taste the dough (how can they resist?) it's safer to use a shortbread recipe for making cut-out cookies.  

Cut-Out Shortbread Cookies

2 cups unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

4 7/8 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

Simplest Frosting

Confectioners sugar

Milk

Equipment

Mixer

Rolling pin

Tree cookie cutters

Wilton blue sugar nonpareils/sprinkles

Food coloring

Tiny spoons

Mix butter & sugar on medium speed.  Mix salt into flour, add to butter & sugar until fully blended. Dough maybe a little crumbly but push together by hand.  Take out a 5" ball to work with at a time.  Flour a flat, clean surface.  With rolling pin roll out dough to 1/4" thick layer.  Cut with tree cookie cutters and place on baking tray.  Bake for approximately 14 minutes in middle of 325 degree oven or until edges are lightly brown.  Cool.

Wilton Sprinkles can be found at your local Michael's

I never felt that taking out the cake decorating set, with nozzles and everything else was going to be anything but an exercise in frustration for my smalls, so instead we would mix a very little milk, like two teaspoons, with a cup or more of confectioners sugar, and then add the food coloring of their choice.  It should be quite thick, not runny at all.  We would then spoon the sugar frosting on top of each cookie, spreading it in place with the back of the spoon.  Then they would add sprinkles of all sorts on top.  Then my daughter thought of dribbling a second color of frosting onto the cookie while the first layer was still wet.  She liked to make plaid Christmas cookies.  From her novel method came the idea for these pretty blue trees.

Simple and Elegant

 Mix up a bowl of white and a bowl of sky blue frosting.  Frost with the blue layer and then, before the frosting dries and sets, dribble from the tip of the spoon a zig zag of white frosting.  It may take a little practice at getting the timing and flow right. Put blue nonpareils along the white zig zag.  Let dry.  Frosting will become hard in about an hour, and then put cookies in a plastic container.

Mug from Cerulean Blue, cards from My Zoetrope and KBatty, plate from Megan Hart Porcelain 

 After all that work, it's time to relax with a little hot chocolate.  Happy Holidays, everyone!


Jody Lee

www.astudiobythesea.etsy.com

Holiday Craft Fair - Sneak Peek #3

It's almost here! THIS SATURDAY is our 3rd Annual Holiday Craft Fair at The Howland Center in Beacon and we hope to see you there from 10 am till 4 pm right on the east end of Main Street.  Then stick around and enjoy Beacon for Second Saturday!

Visitors will have the chance to enter to win one of 27 cash prizes in Etsy Gift Cards $25-$50 each!

The last but certainly not the least group of our members who will be at The Howland this weekend....

Meerwiibli

Spinning Mule

Anjali Creations

Dumb Bunny Designs

Kokma

See our previous sneak peeks here and here.  See you this Saturday!