Ahhhhhhhhhh.  Saturday I’m vending in my very first craft show/fair/festival/whatevs.  I’m pretty scared.  I’m a pretty socially awkward/shy person, so I’m also pretty anxious about just putting myself out there and interacting with *strangers*! Haha.

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…probably more stuff than I’ll ever really need.

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.

You’ll notice the keyword here is “cheap”. Since I’m just starting out with the craft show circuit, I’m not ready to invest a bunch of money in my displays just yet. I’m looking for inexpensive ways to build a nice-looking setup. 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 little metal file folder holder and an old little shutter, both used 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 frames on this table from Goodwill for cheap and spraypainted them per my color scheme.  The one in the center is actually a memo board that I re-covered with some neutral beige fabric.

You can see the ring box I discussed making in this post in the center of my table.

The memo board displays all of my bunting necklaces, and the blue frame on the left has hooks on the top to hold my other necklaces (again, installed by my handy husband).

I’m hoping the unique printer’s tray earring display will catch customers’ attention. 

I found the little wire ferris wheel at Goodwill and used it to hang my charm earrings.

For the pricing signs, I got tiny-sized canvases from Hobby Lobby, spray painted them brown, and hand painted pricing info in lime.  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.

Editing to add: I got my frames and memo board to stand up by using those metal picture frame holders you can get at Hobby Lobby or any craft store. They are generally sturdy enough to support these light-weight frames.

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!