LizzieCaye's First Craft Show

My first craft show was a huge success, and at the same time a bit disappointing. The show was in a church in Dallas. It's a well known craft show, but the volume of "re-sale" type items has grown over the years. By this I am NOT talking about cool vintage stuff. There was quite a number of booths that had fashion jewelry and items that were made in some other country and sold here. There were only a handful of truly handmade items. I think this is what contributed to it being disappointing. So on to the good stuff!!

I love my display and I have to thank my Mom & Step-Dad for helping put it all together. A REALLY close friend of my mom's is an artist who was recently changing up her display, and gave all the grids to my mom. There in turn my mom and I talked about how they could be used for my display. So my Step-Dad cut them down, sandblasted them, and re-painted them. I'm quite lucky my Step-Dad has so many hobbies (Much to my Mom's chagrin). The red cover for my table I got at a clearance sale at a large catering companies sale (they were getting rid of allthe stuff that either wasn't been used, or was a bit too worn). Whoohooo for me.

The Gray topper on it came from some sheets that my hubby and I purchased for our bed, but were a dismal failure (They were so thin that when you sat on the bed the fitted sheet immediately popped off...). We got them at a flea market so couldn't return them, so what you see is the fitted sheet draping nicely over the elastic as it clings to the table.

To create some elevation, I took to plastic bins that I use in my studio to keep projects sorted and put them underneath the sheet to raise some of my purses up.

Here in the Dallas area we have this place called Sam Moon, which has really cheap accessories, I got several purse hangers there to be able to hang my bags from the edge of the table. I used S-hooks of different sizes to hang all of my purses from grid, and I used the basket there to put all my iPhone covers. The first day of the show I ended up making 10 more of them. Came home sewed them together and added them to inventory the next day!

Working on things was definitely a draw for many people. I'd suggest that if you have the ability to work on small things at a craft show - DO IT!! People get curious and want to come and see what you are working on.

The things I learned that I didn't know are that this was not the best forum for me. I need something a bit more artsy and unique, with the expectation that you are paying for quality, craftsmanship, uniqueness, and originality. I also learned that I need to get ACTUAL signs made... I laugh at myself here..... while shaking my head AND rolling my eyes (at myself....). I met some really cool artists that I believe that if I keep in contact with them, they will be great mentors and advocates for me. I also became aware of how I like talking to people and sharing my craft with them. So even though I didn't make the money I wanted to, I met great people and had a great time!

See these creations up close and personal at LizzieCaye.

Our first Craft show by THE WEEPING WILLOW'S

We did our first craft fair last Sunday and it was fantastic. It was held in a little seaside town near us called Lancing. The fair was actually held in the theatre on the actual pier with stunning views out to sea and it was a beautiful sunny day.

Me and my mum got together on the Saturday to finish off a few things that's we thought would only take an hour or so..............well, it took a lot longer! So the first lesson we learnt is to prepare a little better and not leave the packaging until the last minute.

On the morning of the craft fair everything was running smoothly until I dropped a huge box of tiny seed beads on the pavement outside the venue.....we both saw the funny side, hunched over on all fours at 8am with everyone watching us whilst we picked up tiny beads! Lesson number 2....put lids on EVERYTHING!

We had not set up a stall before but had lots of fab ideas and the stall next to us did not show up so their table was added to ours at no added cost which was fab. Lesson number 3, always bring extra material in case that happens again as only our first table had our lovely turquoise material on it.

We sold things from 3 of our shops.

The Weeping Willow's
House of Willow
Willow's Wool
anyway, here are some photos of our set up:

Things like these offered in our Etsy shop located here.

Overall we had a great day and it went well. We made quite a few sales but more importantly got out there, meeting people and getting a really good response. When you work so hard on your Etsy shops you don't get the experience of face to face sales and they really are amazing.

We feel confident now and have already made a booking for a second craft show in the same venue next week.......

We had such a great response to our 'use again' and 'recycle' products....it was really nice to see.

top tip: Put everything into one of those soft suitcases on wheels because you can then just tip it up slightly and wheel all of your things in and out really easily instead of carrying box after box!