Prairie Scraps

As the fall harvest begins, I was finding several different bags of fruit in the freezer from last year that we hadn't used yet.  On top of that, we had an obnoxious amount of rhubarb this spring already!  What started to be a batch of Huckleberry jam, turned into an afternoon of making jam and sauces!    The jams I used from last year's berries were huckleberry, raspberry, strawberry rhubarb and cherry. My favorite recipe book is The Ball Complete Book of Canning, which if you don't have, you should get!  It has every recipe that you could possibly use and more. Only one recipe have we not likde and that was the Cherry Jam, where the optional ingredients we didn't like.  We leave them out and we love it!    I still had over 30 bags of rhubarb in my freezer (what can I say we love rhubarb coffee cake all winter long, but this was a little much!) so was checking out the recipes in my canning book.  I've made...

We have finally made it!  Me, my final post on the 31 Days Until a Craft Show  series and getting ready for my craft show this season and hopefully you, on your endeavor to be in a craft show.  This last post, I am just going to give you my last, unsolicited advice on getting ready to go and I will finish off with a link list of all my posts in this series. As you get ready, a few things to remember to do: Double check your contract to be sure the times, rules, and anything else to expect at the show. Arrive at the earliest time you can to set up.  I think it's better to have time to spare after you set up than to be running late and run the chance of losing customers.  Most of the other vendors often check each other's booths out before the show and may even buy from you if you are more set up and they can see things. (In other words, don't miss a sale!) Stand back and take a look - Are you pleased? Does it flow right?  Does the booth f...

Another thing that I highly recommend doing is a trial run on packing up the car. Here are some things to think about when you are packing up your car: Make sure it fits! If you have a large display, be sure that it fits into the car before the day of the show.   Start packing up your vehicle way in advance of the show, not just hours before.  This gives you time to readjust and to rethink how you might get things into the car. Don't make too many trips! If you live nearby, you may have an easier time getting things to the show because you can make multiple trips, but  if you've ever tried to park at a show when it's getting set up, you will know that you don't want to make too many trips and try to find parking. Have an order! Think about what order you need things out of your vehicle, also.  Don't put your display tables on the bottom, or you will need to unpack the entire car in order to get the display set up.  Try to make the tables and disp...

If you have a "normal" life that has to go on, this might be more of a reminder for you, but  when you are getting ready for a craft show, you have to keep working on all of your project.  Make many more and make a variety of things. At this point in your preparations, you house and work area probably looks like this: Beautiful solid wood frame I'm going to paint and put a wire in to hang pictures by a clothespin. Small run of the mill bulletin board that I am going to transfer  a  French print on. This is my favorite.  The picture doesn't do it justice, because it is really long, about 3 feet.  I am painting this shiny black and making it a chalkboard.   This frame is wonderful!  I'm debating keeping this one a mirror, but I think there is a scratch in the middle, so I may have to turn it into a chalkboard too.  I may go for a teal frame. This is just a glimpse of the 8 foot table we set up just outside my...

I think this is one of the most important steps of the craft show (besides making all of your goodies) and that is to have a dry one of the set up.  Mark out the exact dimensions of your booth with tape and actually set up your display, before you get to the show!  In fact, if you have a place, like a shed or a garage, that you can have a Dry Run setup for an extended time, do it. Doing a Dry Run will give you an idea of how big your booth really is and what it will look like.  I remember going to a craft show and setting up all my things the night before, which we had the option of doing and having the time to really digest what my booth would look like. The next morning, I came in early, thankful that I wasn't rushing to get things setup and lo and behold the lady with the booth across the aisle from me was frantic.  Frantic to get her things in and extremely shocked.  She couldn't believe how small her booth was and that her display ...

As you're getting ready for your craft show, don't forget to promote yourself!  I know that the craft show organizers should be doing their share in spreading the word, you should also promote the event to your friends and family members as best you can! The nice thing about asking your friends and family to come, and spread the word for you is that they also are great customers, especially for you!  Here are some of the places you should consider spreading the word through: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Yahoo Personal Email Texting Blog about it! Flyers - hand these out everywhere you go. (You can ask the organizers for some.) The more people that attend the event, the better your sales will be, so don't be shy about letting people know that you'll be there.  On many of these venues, you can even include a picture of some of your items that you will be selling to bring up interest! So here's my promotion: Grangeville Holiday Craft Show When: ...

Now that you are getting your craft show items made, I'm sure that your house has been transformed into an interesting craft explosion, especially if you don't have a craft room just for doing crafts in.  And if you don't have a ton of storage area to put all your items to sell, you are looking for some ideas on how to store them. Of course, there is the old fashioned, box them up and put them in storage, but I try to be a little more creative with that.  (Ok, I don't alway trust that our storage is going to be dry and safe from harm.) My best advice is to hide the items in plain sight.  Here are where some of my items are hiding being stored in plain sight: I am using that vintage suitcase that I did Over HERE .     I am using this suitcase in the corner as one of my decorations in my living room.  At some point, I may have too many decorations, but hopefully that won't happen until we are closer to the craft show! This is a chair I have r...

As you begin to   Make the Crafts  and  Make the Display , you will want to be thinking about how you will be packing your items up into your vehicle to get to the show.  Some may be fortunate enough to have a trailer or a pickup truck, but most probably will be trying to fit everything into a mini-van, or a contained vehicle. This is similar to what I am working with.  It has a lot of space when all the seats are put down, but it still does limit me to how much I can get into it.  Some items, I just may not be able to make because they may not fit into my vehicle.  Fortunately, I am doing the show a few blocks from my house, so I could possibly make more than one trip. If you are doing a craft show farther away, you may want to either cut back the size of the items you make, or come up with some way to bring the items to the craft show.  I've seen people pack things into a camper or into a trailer.  I would hesitate to do an...

This post is making me stumble a little.  It's been snowing for a couple of days now, and I just can't get some of my painting done right now.  I had these great plans to have things underway for actually making my display, but the snow has put a snafu into my plans. I have two older ladders: one I got free from a rummage sale and the other happened to be my Grandfather's.  They are nice wooden ones, the free one doesn't work too well, but I figured with boards put across the two of them, it would stabilize enough to hold my display.  I was going to just brush white paint on them, to give them a more uniform look to them. I have four large crates, two I am leaving wood with their Chinese writing on the sides, the other two need to also get the white wash treatment that my ladders are getting.  Along with these crates, I have two old wooden saw horses that I plan to use.  I am not going to change these, they have a little bit of green to them...

Well, are you ready for Part 2 of Display ideas?  I have them in no particular order, and also can't get everyone that's out there in this post, but I am trying to give you as many different ideas as I can.  I am doing my very best to credit the sources for these pictures, but what I find is that when people put their pictures in flicker accounts, I can't link them to the person.  Trust me, I want very much to give the person credit for their picture and their work. Pink Lemonade (not a direct link to blog post) I love the idea of using a dresser, but this would be large to move into a booth.  The only worthwhile use for it would be to sell the dresser, too. Go Monkey Designs Booth I love the hanging purse display and the buckets with the boards in the display.  Great use of height again. Sugar Bee Crafts What a great idea to attract people to your booth, plus you can change it because it is chalk. Sugar Bee Crafts This one has a great ide...

I have to admit, this is probably one of the most exciting part of getting ready for a craft show - the pictures of display idea.  Go ahead and admit it, you really don't care about all the business of getting ready, but you can't wait to see the pictures of other people's craft booths!  Of course, I can't show you all the pictures out there on the internet, but I have been pinning a ton of them in expectation of this post, so I will share them with you now.  Please give a shout out to those that I am using for idea.  I will be giving a link to each of their posts so you can look closer. Oh, I will be taking two posts for the Display Ideas.  I figured this would be more than one post worth.  Be sure to check out all my other posts that I have done in this series:  31 Days Until a Craft Show . Recyclart  Wouldn't these pallets work great for hanging things on and giving height to your booth?  Not only that, but they are free! Suns...

In the quest to get ready for doing a Craft Show, one of the things to plan for and decide is how to take money.  Of course you want to be sure to have enough change on hand when you take money, but you also should consider and decide ahead of time what you will take for money. Will you take checks?  Of course, there are pros and cons to this option.  In our area, I would say that the majority of people are going to be local, so taking a local check, should be pretty safe.  If you are going to major show that may attract customers from farther away, you may want to reconsider that.  Can you afford to lose the money if the check doesn't clear? Will you take credit cards?   This is something that is fairly new for availability for small businesses.  To take a credit card has become easier.  As far as I can tell, you have to have an Android or an iPhone.  Unfortunately, I don't have one, and can't quite justify the cost of one just yet. ...

I hope you've been enjoying all the posts on  31 Days Until a Craft Show .  My intent was not only to get myself ready for my craft show this year, but also, to get all the information in one place for doing a craft show.  As I was doing searches online, I couldn't find a lot of places that had all the information in one place and put in the pictures too.  I hope this can be a resource, so please comment if you have more ideas or links to posts about getting ready for a craft show. I don't know about you, but when getting ready for a craft show, one of the last things that I really think about is bagging.  I'm thinking back to my first few craft shows, and don't even think I had bags at all.  After this last craft show, where my friends were doing the most organizing, I realized that I may have missed this important item. Of course, you could just plan to use old plastic Walmart bags, but I think it's nice to have a little extra touch by bagging it up...

Tagging is one of my favorite things to do, aside from actually crafting.  Ok - I find this to be a very crafty thing to do.  This is the tool that I think is essential: Tag Maker I love this tool and would love it it you would consider purchasing it from my website  HERE.   I have used this Tag Maker for many years and probably hundreds of tags and it is showing no wear and tear!  It makes a 2"x3" tag that is a perfect size for writing not only the price on it, but also a complete description.  I plan to use my tags as my way to track what I have sold, so it's nice to be able to put a clear description of the item on each tag. I make the tags out of paper bag, but I have also made them out of cheap 3"x5" note cards, depending on what I have on hand.  I did find that the paper bags in our area in WI were too thin to work very well.  Here on the prairie, the bags seem to be more sturdy, so that's what I use. Although my tags are simp...

I've been working on my items for the craft fair, and was so excited about this one, I just had to share!  Sorry for the little break from my  31 Days Until a Craft Show Series , but I did warn you that I like to do new things all the time.  There is a ton of info on my series so far, and you'll have to stay tuned for more very soon! I found this project  here at Graphics Fairy .  If you have not been to Graphics Fairy's website, yet, you need to get over there.  She has so many awesome FREE graphics and a ton of ideas on how to use them.  I was looking through Pinterest, and ran into her tutorial on how to make a sheet music covered suitcase.  I knew right away that I had to do this and that I had the perfect suitcase for it! Stain Ridden Vintage Suitcase It is actually a wood suitcase, but had holes worn through Very stained looking After  This looks so amazing, I almost hope it doesn't sell!  I can't believe how m...