As you may know, I'm an avid researcher and reader for any topic I'm unfamiliar with. Thus, I've been scouring the blogosphere and Etsy forums and reading all about how to prepare for a craft show. Other than just general nerves, I feel like I'm as prepared as I can be. I've had the tables set up in my living room for about 2 weeks now. I've set up my Square account and practiced swiping credit cards. I've got $100 in cash change. I've got receipt books, an inventory spreadsheet and a clip board, handheld mirrors, a vending apron, table risers....
The past month I've taken my inventory from about 45 items to 240 items (wowzers!). I've also been diligently working on creating displays and a table setup as cheaply as possible.
Here's my practice setup thus far (I haven't ironed the table cloth yet so please ignore the wrinkles!)
Here's a summary: I've got a 4 foot table on the left with a printer's tray that my helpful husband spray painted white and screwed in tons of little half inch brass hooks. I hung crystal earrings of various sizes on the hooks. On that table, I also have a cheap wrought iron file folder holder and an old little shutter as earrings displays.
The table cloths are just cheap full size bed sheets I found in a neutral tone. I bought a little cheap lace tablecloth to spice up the crystal earrings table.
My main 6 foot table has all my stud earrings on the right (hopefully I'll be listing some of these in my Etsy shop soon). I bought the main three frames on this table from Goodwill for cheap and spraypainted them. The one in the center is actually a memo board I covered with new beige fabric.
You can see the ring box I discussed making in this post in the center of my table.
The memo board dispays all my bunting necklaces, and the blue frame on the left has hooks on the top to hold my other necklaces.
I hope the printer's tray will grab some peoples' attention...
Bunting necklaces!
For the stud earring display, I strung twine along the back of the open frame and used tiny sized clothing pins to hang up my earrings cards.
I found the little wire ferris wheel at Goodwill and used it to hang my charm earrings. I also got little tiny canvases, spray painted them brown, and used them as my pricing signs. It was quite difficult grouping over 200 items into just a few price ranges, but I really did not want to price each item individually as I thought it'd just be too time consuming.
What do you think? Give me your feedback! My biggest worry is that I do not have a SHOP NAME anywhere on my table! I mean, I have my business cards out, and I had bought a large canvas to paint Lazy Owl Boutique on, but there's just no room to put it out on the table so I gave up....hopefully it's not too big of a deal. I'm thinking if this whole craft fair venture is successful, I'll order some sort of professional banner with my name and logo and everything.
Wish me luck yall!
