These are the top 5 mistakes handmade vendors commonly make at craft shows. If you're wondering why sales aren't higher, take a look through the list.
8 pop up shop display ideas and 11 photos show you how to use creative visual merchandising to design a vendor booth that stands out.
A simple tutorial for making a DIY driftwood jewelry organizer plus inspiration for other creative jewelry display ideas. #sustainmycrafthabit
Every retail store should needs window displays to attract customers. In this post, we’re going to look at exactly how you can create effective window displays.
Getting ready for your first vintage market or craft fair? Learn vendor tips and resources to make your event a success. Curated by Girl in the Garage
Are you looking for creative ways to display your jewelry at a market or fair so you can sell more?…
Displaying photos at your wedding is not only a fun way to remember the past and celebrate the future, but also a simple and affordable ways
Craft shows are a unique way to shop and vendors can get creative with their setup. But there are certain things craft show shoppers shouldn't see.
Fall of 2012 marked our first experience as an art vendor, at Cooper Young Festival in Memphis, TN. Over the years, we’ve padded our resume with quite a few more shows and experimented with a LOT of trial and error on our vendor booth layout and setup. We’ve learned a lot, both from our own experiences and from looking to other vendors for inspiration. Today, we’re going to share with you our top 16 ideas for selling at art festivals, craft fairs and indie markets. These tips can be summed up into three key categories: Booth Display, Signage/Décor and—the most important—Branding. FIRST, LET'S DIVE INTO VENDOR BOOTH DISPLAY. 1. Plan out your booth space BEFORE the day of your festival. Before we set foot at an art festival, our vendor booth is completely laid out. We measure all our display pieces (shelves, tables, etc.) and configure the space to help speed up the set up time. Plus, not all shows have the same options for booth sizes (because that would just be too easy). This year, our Cooper Young booth featured a 10’ x 15’ space, while some of our holiday shows ranged from a 6’ x 8’ space to a 10’ x 20’ double booth. It helps to lay everything out beforehand to know what will or will not fit in the allotted space. Once everything is measured, we use Adobe Illustrator to plan out the booth space, with everything to scale. We print out copies to take with us during set up, as well as email a copy to ourselves in case we lose the paper copies (it happens). Here's a look at my Adobe Illustrator artboard for our most recent Cooper Young Festival vendor booth: And here is our finished vendor booth, based on that original mock up: 2. Display vertically. When potential buyers pass your vendor booth, they’re not seeing product that is flat on tables. At least some of your work needs to be in their line of sight. One way we add height to our booth display is with these adjustable white metal shelf units we found at IKEA (shop them here). The shelves are completely adjustable and IKEA sells individual shelves, so you can add to the original four included. We switch it up depending on what art we need to display at each festival or market. In the past, we've used these custom built white-washed wood displays on rollers, which our brother built for us. We love how they look in our booth, as they mimic a more retail-style setting. However, these are rather heavy and bulky to transport. Looking for something a little more transport friendly, this year we commissioned a custom white wood peg wall. The unit breaks down into four separate pieces, so it's easy and convenient for traveling. Everything hooks together via large bolts and wing nuts, with the shelves and pegs packed separately. It's also completely adjustable, as the pegs can be configured in various ways. This wall unit is great for displaying our larger 5 panel wood pieces, which serve as great eye catchers for potential buyers walking by our vendor booth. For smaller shows, we take just two of the four wall panels, usually paired with one of the white IKEA shelf units. Bonus: extra pegs are great for hanging ornaments! Clear acrylic risers are also a great way to subtly add height and levels when displaying artwork on a table. Because they're clear, they don't take away from your displayed art. We use combinations of this 5 piece set from Displays2Go. 3. Choose display colors that will make your work pop. As you can see, for our larger display pieces (shelves, walls), we incorporate as much white as possible. Because all sides of our wood art is stained in a dark finish, the white background helps it pop. We also prefer how clean the white and neutral hues look. 4. Store and display multiple art prints. We have ALL-CAPS-STRUGGLED with how to display and store our art prints, other than stuffing them in baskets for browsing. We recently discovered these gold wire baskets from IKEA that slide on perfectly to our white IKEA shelves. They are great at storing stacks of prints! To actually display the prints, we chopped up a 4” x 4” piece of lumber and sawed angled grooves down the top. We stained them to match the color of our wood art. The art prints stand up perfectly in the grooves of the wood, which we then prop up above the wire baskets. It’s easy for buyers to see the print displayed and simply pick it up from the basket underneath for purchase. 5. Use slim Christmas trees to display holiday ornaments. During our holiday shows, our Christmas ornaments are HUGE sellers. While we use our peg wall for some ornament overflow, ornaments look best hanging on an actual Christmas tree. This also better demonstrates to potential buyers how it will look on their own tree. However, for those smaller booth spaces, a full Christmas tree takes up too much valuable real estate and just isn't practical. And some of the smaller, table-top trees aren’t known for being sturdy. Because our ornaments are on the heavier side, we've had issues with the smaller trees tipping over ... especially when buyers are trying to take the ornaments off the trees to purchase. We found a great slim Christmas tree from our local At Home. It measures only 18” in diameter but can still can hold quite a few ornaments. We re-stock throughout the show to keep the tree looking full. NEXT UP, WE HAVE BOOTH SIGNAGE/DÉCOR. 6. Emphasize your business name for potential buyers with branded signage. We have our friends over at Ella Jude to thank for this easy DIY pop-out booth sign idea. For this sign, we painted a thin piece of wood white, then transferred our logo (with our image transfer process) to both sides, though we've seen others hand paint their logo. We bought two pieces of copper pipe and an elbow joint and glued them all together to form an L-shaped corner. To hang the wood sign from the copper pipe, we spray-painted loose-leaf rings to match the copper pipe. We then use clear zip ties to attach the sign to our booth or tent. We're hoping to make an even larger version this year. For additional branded signage, we bought a large white vinyl banner with grommets and designed it to include our logo, website and social media handles. We use this when we have space available. For our outdoor art shows, such as Cooper Young, we hang the banner on the back of our tent so buyers walking down the sidewalks behind the booths can see our name. 7. Tell your story with signage. We sell handmade image transfers on wood and marble tile. The most common question we receive from customers during festivals and shows is,
Displaying photos at your wedding is not only a fun way to remember the past and celebrate the future, but also a simple and affordable ways
There's a lot for craft show shoppers to take in and they likely won't stop at every booth. Here's how to ensure your space catches their eye.
Every retail store should needs window displays to attract customers. In this post, we’re going to look at exactly how you can create effective window displays.
Inspiring houseplant displays spotted on Instagram - from windowsill arrangements to ladder shelving.
Do you love Instagram? Are you printing any of your awesome IG pictures? You should be! I've rounded up 10 Ways to Display Instagram pictures.
I did my first craft fair this year and upon sharing photos of my booth I received a flood of questions on where I purchased my items, how I decorated, and what colors I used
Craft shows are a unique way to shop and vendors can get creative with their setup. But there are certain things craft show shoppers shouldn't see.
Design & DIY Inspiration for Home, Weddings, Parties
A strange rock with a sinister reputation lurks within the crimson waters of this Scottish glen.
As is often said, stress isn’t about what happens to us, it’s how we react to it. This is very true. We don’t feel as…
I’m not sure there could be an easier way to make a jewelry display. I bet this would be perfect for craft shows as it would be easy to pack up and light to move. Everyone can work with dowel…
Welcome to Day #1 of Operation: Organization! We've got nine days of blog posts that are designed to help you get your New Year's organizing kick-started. Every day features a different talented blogger, sharing her
Yes, you can always put your necklaces, bracelets, and rings into a jewelry box, but sometimes, you can collect too many items there. As a result, you will get a tangled bunch at the moment you rush. Besides, you can often forget about some beautiful jewelry because it has fallen to the bottom of the...Read On →
Check out these DIY indoor and outdoor planter tables and display ideas you can make for cheap and enjoy your outdoor space. #hometalk
Every retail store should needs window displays to attract customers. In this post, we’re going to look at exactly how you can create effective window displays.
Have a broken lamp sitting around? Turn it into something new with one of these ideas on how to repurpose old lamps. Tons of great inspiration!
You’ve probably heard people talking about the 7 chakras. They are often referenced in the context of emotional healing or meditation practice. However,
Do you sell your jewelry at a craft fair or online? If so, you know how important presentation is and this post has some awesome ideas for ways you can present and display your handmade creations.…
For a self-taught artist with no gardening skills, Nuby sure found her calling in sculpting miniature flowers and succulents. Since 2008, Nuby has been experimenting with the art of sculpting polymer clay into “colourful blossoms.” Her exploration of clay and mixed media has evolved into her own unique brand of one of a kind hand-sculpted [...]
Craft fair tips for your first craft market including craft fair display ideas and other great craft fair ideas!
Coffee mugs can be difficult to store since they are awkwardly shaped and take up a lot of space. Plus, if you collect mugs, it's nice to be able to display them. Here are 12 handy DIY mug tree and display ideas.
Check out the most clever ways to hang plants in your home! Tons of house plants inspo from some amazing Instagramers. All easy to DIY!
Small artwork is a joy to have around your home. Tiny art can warm up a plethora of interior spaces, shining with their own personality. They can also help bring the perfect home color palette together. I am a fan of filling a home with fine art and I love it when they can add a little light to a
In May and June, we ran a competition to find the best and most inspirational classroom wall display. The winner received a whole set of classroom furniture! To share all these wonderful ideas, we thought that we'd showcase some of them in this blog post. Which is your favourite?
don't just shove 'em into a shoebox - they make the best decor!
A monthly library book display is a great way to bring awareness to different topics, seasons, and celebrations. Check out these ideas!
Displaying photos at your wedding is not only a fun way to remember the past and celebrate the future, but also a simple and affordable ways
These 15 tips on ways to organize scarves will help you keep them neat and tidy whether they're in your drawer, your closet or on display in your room.
Most popular easy portable display ideas for markets and craft fairs - save time and energy with these clever, eye-catching display ideas for vendors.
If you follow us on Periscope, you know we’ve got a new pantry section & organic bath line coming to the store. We’ve been getting in lines a little along the way since our trip to market. I took the time last week to snap a few quick photos for you; it’s been awhile since […]
Every retail store should needs window displays to attract customers. In this post, we’re going to look at exactly how you can create effective window displays.
Inspiring houseplant displays spotted on Instagram - from windowsill arrangements to ladder shelving.
Every retail store should needs window displays to attract customers. In this post, we’re going to look at exactly how you can create effective window displays.
