Friday, November 6, 2009

The Craft Fair....

IS OVER!! Woo Hoo!!

I am so excited to be done with the craft fair!! I am excited to be getting back to my regular routine... with hopefully a few minor changes which involve getting more sleep! :)

I am excited to start getting caught up on what you guys have been up to and be able to see all of your gorgeous creations!! I think that will have to wait till tomorrow though. My immediate plans (after this post) are to go watch Criminal Minds with my husband and get my head rubbed! :) Maybe my feet too... they are really tired! :) And then.... go to SLEEP... Oh Sleep... how I have missed you!

So... I think this was my last craft fair! I did okay today but made about half as much as I did last year at this particular event. There were a lot of lookers but not as many buyers. I think everyone had the same experience for the most part. I saw a lot of empty handed ladies walking around! I at least made my money back on the space rental and probably for all of my supplies that I bought with plenty of stuff left to sell/give away! Maybe a little more but not as much as I had hoped for! I am just thankful to have what I did make! It could have been a lot worse!

I made less stuff this year because 1... I procrastinated about getting started and 2. I had planned to because I didn't want a lot left over. Well... I still have plenty left over! Very disappointing but hey... you live and learn!!

So... here are some pictures of what I made and sold. I made these jumbo clips with initials on them which sold like hot cakes last year. I tell you what... I bet I made 150 of these last year... I was SICK of them by the time Christmas was here! I made 2 sizes of notepads and a few frames. I had some little Christmas bags left over from last year that I took back this year! I made a few of the covered letters that I just LOVE!! And... thanks to Courtney... I took my cards with me and sold a surprising number of those! I priced them all for $2 a piece and sold several of them. Thanks Courtney for the push to take my cards! :)



I had intended to make some gift tags but never got around to doing that! I also made and sold several soldiered necklaces last year but I didn't feel like messing with those this year. I had several left last year but my soldiering was less than good so I didn't want to take them again this year. I felt that I could do better now (after having more practice) but just didn't take the time to make any!

Anyway... just thought I would give you guys a rundown on my craft fair experience(s) and of course... record it for myself!

Speaking of recording stuff for myself... I had a nice surprise when I got home and had a card over on the CARDS blog today! I wasn't able to make anything new for this last challenge so I sent in one of my EBKS cards that I made using newspaper! Paige was sweet enough to show it on the blog today! I like her!! :)

Oh... and speaking of the Everything But the Kitchen Sink Challenge... you have until Sunday night to enter to win 2 awesome stamp sets!! Don't miss out!! :) You can go directly to the latest challenge post by clicking on the EBKS logo on my sidebar!

Well... hope you guys have had a great week and I sooooo look forward to catching up with you all this weekend!

Love, Peace and Chicken Grease! (Thanks honey for the new saying!)

13 comments:

Winter said...

WOW! You have been busy! Everything looks great! Congrats on your card over at CARDS and your online magazine win too! :)

Christina Smith said...

I'm sorry you didn't sell as much as you would have liked. But that's awesome that you were able to make enough to pay for some of the supplies, the cost of the table, etc. I love your salutation! I've really missed you!!!

Amy Heller said...

WOWOW! That's a LOT of work, Kelley! Great, job! I LOVE those letters you made! Peace and Chicken Grease - that's so funny!!! Oh, and congrats on being featured on CARDS again!!!

~amy~ said...

yahoooo kelley....huge congrats on the cards toot and getting through your craft fair...it IS a ton of work..isn't it?

Jessica said...

Hi Kelly!! So glad your cards sold at the craft and you were able to pay for the fees and what not. I went to CARDS bog and loved the creation they chose. As always clean, simple and classy. Good to have you back.

Ann said...

Yay! So glad it's over and you survived! :D

Janelle said...

Glad for the update, Kelley. I did a few craft fairs in my (much) younger days and decided that they weren't worth it. Most people just seemed to be there to get ideas and then go home and make it themselves! I thought maybe things had changed, but it sounds like not. Glad you recouped your outlay -- and thanks for curing me of any thought that I might like to try that again! You haven't missed a thing at my blog. Hope to post later today...
Congrats on your card at CARDS! Love those newspaper flowers!

Karen said...

I've heard the same thing from quite a few women who do craft faires.....thanks to the lovely economy, people just aren't buying as much right now. But, hopefully, that will start picking up again as the economy does. :> Good for you for participating and I'm glad you at least made enough to cover your costs. Love those BIG letters! They came out looking fantastic! Thanks for sharing with us and hope you got some sleep last night with lots of sweet dreams! :>:>

Jane said...

Wow.......I'm bushed just reading this!! Good stuff!!

Vanessa said...

Congrats on another featured card on the Cards blog!!! Love the stuff you created for the craft fair - Sorry you didn`t sell that much!

Hugs,
Vanessa

Elise said...

Well, being featured on the CARDS blog is a nice shot in the arm after a day like that! I'm SO very proud of you, for sooooo many reasons! You stuck it out! Do you KNOW how awesome that is! I've done a lot of those back in my day and aside from the huge rush of hopefulness... they can be a bit of a let down. I'm sorry for that part, but I can say by looking at the picts of your booth that those patrons JUST DON'T KNOW A GOOD THING WHEN THEY SEE IT! Your stuff was ADORABLE and I would have gotten a lot of early Christmas shopping done, if I was local! That's what I have to say about that! Really great work, my dear!

Courtney Baker said...

Oh good. I'm so glad you sold some cards too! Plus at $2 - that's a total steal.

Maybe you should load this stuff to etsy just to try it out. Just saying :).

Stephanie said...

Glad you survived the craft sale - too bad you didn't have a multi-millionaire come in - s/he'd be in awe and buy all of your fab creations.

Congrats on your CARDS toot :)