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I'm thinking about doing a craft fair sometime this fall and wondering what kind of stuff to make. I was thinking memo cubes ,beaded pens, notebooks, card sets, single cards (maybe spinners, shakers) magnets, coasters, gift boxes filled with candy.
If you've ever done this what sells best? This will be held around thanksgiving should I have christmas cards too? I'm trying to give myself tons of time to prepare and make everything. As a customer, what would you like to buy? I've been to this fair the last several years and nobody does stamped stuff, its all quilts, woodworking, kids clothes, etc.
I welcome any opinions and advice!
__________________ Melissa
"Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort" - Franklin D. Roosevelt
I think Christmas cards for a November craft fair are a good idea. My demo tends to sell a bunch around the holidays in 3-packs.
Something else you might consider are ceramic ornaments -- I did a bunch of these for friends this past Christmas and they were a huge hit. I found the ceramic ornaments at Micheals and then stamped images from "Thanks Snow Much" and "Winter Play" on them using the Staz On ink. I also cut off the cheesy gold hangers they came with and used sheer ribbon instead.
Ceramic trivets might work, too. Not sure how those would sell.
Good luck and have fun preparing!
Heather
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My girlfriend sells jewerly and started making beaded pens to sell also. She sells them for $6 and sells tons. I was so suprised because I could not believe she was getting $6 a pen while selling jewerly next to them.
You may want to go back and do a search for craft fairs from all the postings of this in the Fall on here. The two things that I remembered that sold well then was tile coasters and snowman soup!
I'm thinking about doing a craft fair sometime this fall and wondering what kind of stuff to make. I was thinking memo cubes ,beaded pens, notebooks, card sets, single cards (maybe spinners, shakers) magnets, coasters, gift boxes filled with candy.
I know if Stampin' Up people sold stuff like this I would be there in a heartbeat Really good ideas you have listed. We typically have a craft fair here the last Saturday of each month, only if announced. I have seen some Stampin' Up demos there, but all they sale is their cards and most aren't that great. I think if they made some cute crafty gifts I think they would do better selling stuff. So the stuff you mentioned sounds great including the neat cards you mentioned (like shakers & spinners)!
My friend and I did a few lst year before Christmas. The coasters were our best sellers. Everything else just kinda hung out. I akso sold a couple of Christmas Trivets too.
I did 3 or 4 craft fairs between Thanksgiving and Christmas and had tile coasters sets, tile magnets, christmas cards, beaded pens, acetate ornaments, domino key chains.
I sold more coaster sets and beaded pens than anything else. I sold 4-5 tile magnets. I sold 3 boxes of cards, I had them in boxes of 8 for 10.00.
I actually sold more of the acetate christmas ornaments because I took special orders to personalize them and bring them back the next day (the craft fairs I did were Sat & Sun). They would order 10 at a time and I charged 2.00 a piece, this year I'll charge more.
We live in an economically challenged area and pricing higher would have meant no sales. I did get a special order for 90 christmas cards for 1 lady and I charged her .80 per card..(note to self....I'll charge more next time...she picked the most labor intensive cards I had at the craft fair after I told her what I would charge...next time find out which card they like and then price)..LOL!!!
I haven't sold any stamping stuff at craft fairs/holiday bazaars (I promised DH that Stamping would be a hobby only) but I do sell other things. I am always curious as to how the Stampers are selling. One great item is cards for kids to color in. You just stamp on white CS with something like Crayon Fun (not sure if that is the name of the set) and package a few cards (like thank yous, birthdays, holiday) with a small pack of crayons or watercolors for kids to color in on their own. Tile coasters sell well. Also, depending on where the fair is, religious things can sell well too, like magnets, bookmarks, etc.
I thought of something else that a friend of mine sells - she does great with little sets of gift tags. She ties a bunch together (5-10 or them) with a little hemp twine or ribbon and they sell like crazy. They are small and easy to make.
My girlfriend and I did a craft show in October...what *really* sold were *tons* of Tumbled Tile coasters...in *EVERY* color and pattern imaginable! Florals...snowflakes...fruit...penguins...golf...y ou name it. She had them priced at $15 for a set of 4. Sold out of a dozen sets the first day, went home and made several more dozen sets for the second and third days. ~ K
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hey londonrain, thanks for starting this thread! A friend and I are going to do a fair this June...Already thought of some of the ideas you had, but I never even thought to put it here, and get ideas from EVERYONE!!! Thanks everyone!!! =)
My friend has had success having teacher-type gifts to sell. This is especially good with all of the Winter holidays coming up, as parents usually get something for the teacher- and love to find unique items, so they're sure the teacher doesn't have it yet! Post-it note holders are cute... so are covered/stamped composition notebooks. Teachers can always use another surface to write on!! Hope that helps!
I also have a question about the beaded pen. Are you talking about an RSVP filled with beads or a Bic pen covered with Tacky Tape rolled in beads?
Thanks!
Well, I just got back from a craft fair....My goal was to at least cover the cost of the booth. We finished $1 short of the goal, which was okay. It was just a small church fair. There was a SU demo there that was SHARING A BOOTH WITH A CM DEMO. She was also selling retired sets!
Another SU demo was selling homemade cards (she said they made $12), a lady was selling handmade cards for $1(they were made out of recycled cards), too.
We sold some cards, and some votive candles we beaded. Things we had, but didn't sell were:
One of the things that sold at my school craft fair was candy bags, I stamped the toppers and bought those inexpensive plastic bags from Wal-mart (small ziplock ones--Darice) I either put hersey kisses or christmas m&m's. These make great stocking stuffers and kids love these!
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Snowman soup is a packet of hot chocolate, some marshmallows, and a candy cane. (some people put kisses in there, too)
I did a craft show this past winter and the snowman soup went fast! I had gotten the greeting cards from Michael's that come in a package of 50, wheeled it with the snowflake wheel in bliss blue, printed and put the poem on the front, and used blue organdy ribbon to tie it with a little tag with a snowman on it. Everyone loved them!
The other thing that went well was ornaments. (the glass ones filled with irridesent shred)
I did okay with the tile coasters, and sold only a couple of the glass marble magnets.
Also, I used the same cards as for the snowman soup, wheeled those in red with the candy canes and covered a jr legal pad with it and put in a matching rsvp pen. Those sold out, too.
craft fairs
