::Craft Show Mini Series:: Branding like a Pro for Cheap!

Hey My Friends, I hope you've had a wonderful weekend!  Ready for our next little chat about how to rock your first craft show?  I'm no pro, but I would love to share with you a few tips I've learned about branding so that you can make your craft show booth (and online shop) look like you spent a lot of money hiring someone to make a cohesive brand... when in reality you've spent next to nothing!

Let's get started!  If you're not already familiar with Picmonkey.com, you'll want to check it out... it's a totally free photo editing website.  You don't have to download anything on to your computer or sign up for annoying emails.  Next, read Jill's fantastic tutorial about how to make a resource like this site work for you.  Following Jill's tutorial and Picmonkey.com I was able to create all of my branding materials.

To create my logo I set up a Pinterest board and began pinning anything I liked... colors, shapes, font, feel, etc.  It was a nice way to start a daunting process, I basically just combined a lot of the ideas I liked and here's what I came up with:

I used my logo in this collage (the collage is another feature Picmonkey offers).  About two months before my show I sent my friends and family an email save the date and included the following two pictures.  (Surprisingly, I got a lot of orders even before the show started by doing this!)  I wanted those close to me to know that I was planning my first craft show and what I was going to be selling.  

Keep in mind when you're creating a brand that you want every touch a customer has with your business to include your logo or at least the "feel" you're trying to create.  Some of the places a customer might come in to contact with your brand are:

• Shipping materials
• Gift bags/packaging materials at your show
• Business card
• Enclosure cards 
• Online shop header
• Blog header
• Thank you notes
• Name tag at the show

My Etsy shop banner:

Here's my most favorite tip!  I ordered a stamp with my logo from Rubber Stamp Champ (right now they have free shipping on orders over $10!)  This is the one I bought and I upgraded to laser rubber since I knew I would be using this sucker a ton.  

I'm very pleased with the rough texture of the stamp, but if that's not the look you're going for you can always order a smaller size.  

I used the stamp on my business cards.  I bought simple business cards from vistaprint.com.  They were blank except for my blog, email and Etsy site addresses printed on the bottom corner, then I went to town stamping them.

I also used the stamp on some round printable stickers (Avery 5294).  Yes, you could just print from your computer directly on to the stickers and that would save a lot of time, but I liked the imperfect texture of the stamp, so I went that route.  Those stickers were used for my packaging, gift bags, gift wrap and my mailing materials.

And here I am modeling both a stiff smile and all of the branding in my booth.

I've said it before, but it's a good time to say again how important signage for your booth is.  Make a sign and put it up high enough that your shoppers can see it even if the booth is packed.  I made this sign by printing my logo out on computer paper, tracing the design on to freezer paper, then using the freezer paper stenciling method to print my logo on to a piece of fabric that was stretched in an embroidery hoop.  Lots of steps, but it's worth it because I'll be able to use this sign a ton.

Last but not least, my enclosure cards... I whipped up this design on picmonkey then uploaded it to either snapfish.com or shutterfly.com (I can't remember which) when they were doing their penny print deal.  I got 200 of these for $2.00 plus shipping!  Score!

I love that every one of my customers will have a pretty picture of my product along with all of my contact information if someone asks them where they got their scarf or if they decide to order another color in the future.  Oh, and to save time I stuffed one of these in each of my gift bags before the show started.

Whew!  So there are all of my branding on a dime secrets.  I'd love to hear any ideas you might have.

UPDATE:  Here are the links to all five posts in this mini series:

The First Step... Designing your "Feel"

Designing Your Booth

Branding like a Pro for Cheap

What To Bring

How to Prepare

::Craft Show Mini Series:: Designing Your Booth

If you missed the first post in my Mini Series, check out what I think is the key first step in getting ready for your first craft show... Designing your "Feel."

After you have a plan of action it's time to design your booth. To do this well you'll want to keep a few things in mind:

Who will be there in addition to your target audience?  Kids?  Weary husbands?  Do you have something for them to make their stop easier?  Think: candy, chairs, etc.

What will people do in your booth?  If they have more things to do they will spend more time in your booth.  More time in your booth = sales!  In my case, I wanted them to be able to try on scarves and have a place to relax or place custom orders.  

I made a fitting room of sorts with a few scarves on hangers so people could try them on and so I could show off the different ways to wear the scarves.  This was key!  I was able to up-sale a few people who were "only buying for a friend" or who may not have bought one, but folded when they felt how warm and soft they really were!

I also made sure that I branded everything they looked at (more on that later).  I had business cards and my scarf enclosure cards at eye level encouraging people to take a look at my blog as well as my Etsy shop.  

Don't underestimate the power of your packaging!  My packaging did double duty as display, protection of the scarves and easy wrapping for gifts.  I ordered these boxes from PaperMart.com and was pleased with them.  They ended up being about $1 each, shipped to my house.  That's expensive, but you've gotta spend money to make money.  Also, don't underestimate the power of lighting and fresh flowers.  There's just something about fresh flowers that's cozy.

I made my sign using freezer paper stenciling.  It was really easy to do and added a lot of impact to the back wall of my booth where your eye would naturally land when you were walking by.  Plenty of people make the mistake of putting a sign on their tablecloth.  The problem with that is when things get busy you can't see your sign, so make sure that sucker is up high enough!  People need to know who made this stuff!

As much as I would have liked to have had personal conversation with every single person who came in my booth, it just wasn't possible because of how busy it was.  There were a few points about my products I wanted to make sure people were aware of, so I made little talking point bubbles and placed them around my inventory.  This one reads "Each of my paintings are one-of-a-kind.  I do not sell prints, so you can be sure you have an original piece of art for your home."

You get the point.  There's an adorable shop in Raleigh that does this beautifully, Ornamentea.  I got the idea from them.  My tiny little laminating machine got a workout before this show, I'm telling you, that was money well spent!

One other recommendation I have when designing your booth is to think about the future.  Maybe you'll sell out of a certain color (hopefully!)  I had a color board with my yarn samples so people could place custom orders.  I had quite a few custom orders placed for baby hats and I'll show you the order form I made up in another post.

Loved these tiny chalk boards to show the prices of my inventory! (Michaels' dollar bin.)  I found this much more effective than pricing each individual item.

Finally, think about the questions people will ask you and see if you can answer them before they are asked... what's your name?  Wear a branded name tag.  Do you take credit cards? Show a laminated list of the cards you accept (I used the Square... loved it and I'll tell you more later.)  Do you gift wrap?  Have branded bags at the ready.

Here's my little workstation at the show, tucked away and out of sight with everything I needed.

Branding is my next post in this mini series, I'll show you how I did it all myself and on the cheap!

UPDATE:  Here are the links to all five posts in this mini series:

The First Step... Designing your "Feel"

Designing Your Booth

Branding like a Pro for Cheap

What To Bring

How to Prepare

Merry Christmas! My Gift To You!

My shop is all a flurry with new items and every single thing can be shipped to you for free!  You read that right!  Free Shipping on everything in the shop, just use the coupon code: NOSHIPPING as my Christmas gift to all of my readers in the US.  Merry Christmas, Friends!

::Craft Show Mini Series:: Designing your "Feel"

It's the first post of my Mini Series... get pumped, get psyched!

So you want to do a craft show and you're not sure where to start.  That's exactly where I was a few months ago, so you're in good company.  In this mini series I plan to cover:

The First Step... Designing your "Feel"

Designing Your Booth

Branding like a Pro for Cheap

What To Bring

How to Prepare

Now I am in no way an expert, but I've read more craft show posts and books and listened to more podcasts than I care to admit!  (More on my favorite resources in my last post.)  How about I sift through all of that for you and give you just the gems?

The first place to start is deciding on what you want to sell (think: what are you best at making, what would YOU buy?) and seeing what the common denominator is.  I wanted to sell handwoven infinity scarves, paintings, crayons, baby hats, preschool song books and stationary.  There's not a whole lot in common in that list.  It's not like I was only selling things for one type of customer or only things that go around your neck.  My inventory was a little all over the map so color was my tie that bound everything together.  I used the same color palate and even with a crazy mixture of items, it all came together.

After you decide on what to sell it's time to design your "feel."  In my opinion this step is master class... a ton of people buy a black velvet tablecloth, lay out their stuff and call it a day.  Where's the personality, where's the element of story that comes with your product?  I think creating a "feel" is key to giving someone an experience with you.  People love to give gifts with a story behind them and when they have just met a stay-at-home mom of (almost) three who knits during nap time and decorates with her grandmother's treasures because it's the nostalgia she loves, they like talking about it.  It brings another level of depth and value to your product you've worked hard on.  You'll think about packaging and display later (and I'll talk more about that in a different post) but first it all has to relate back to your "feel."  

Ask yourself what type of environment to you want to create.  My decided feel was "bright and happy little boutique!"  That phrase then acted as my filter.  When deciding on my display I would ask myself the question, "Is this in my bright and happy little boutique?"  Would a wooden stump be happy?  Nah, not really, that's more woodsy.  How about an old Radio Flyer Wagon?  Happy, yes, but not exactly in my bright color palate.  It's a cute idea, but that's more "playful vintage" than I was going for this time.  Does that make sense?

A great place to start might be this quick decorating style survey or here's another one from Sproost.

Here are some examples of my style and how it played out in my booth:  I love the warmth of the unfinished wood, aqua, pinks, vintage table cloths and hankies... those made the cut.  As did white furniture with a scalloped edge.

These fit my aesthetic perfectly... bright, happy scrapbook paper with glittered vintage hymnal sheets.  AND those I didn't sell will be up in the shop soon!

 Bright scarf hung on an old wooden hanger.

Vintage Lilly Pulitzer fabric Mod Podged on to a tin ceiling tile with all of my yarns for custom orders.

Next up... "Designing your Booth" with a couple bazillion pictures of mine!

How to Wear Your New Scarf

So you've bought a new scarf from the Create Studio Shop.  Yay!  

Mind if I give you a quick tutorial on how I like to wear mine?

First, give the scarf a light stretch between your hands.

 Slip it over your head with the portion that rolls up on the outside.

 Pull the bottom roll down slightly.

 Then pull the portion between the two rolls out and down.

 So that's how I like to wear my scarf.  I also think it looks good inside out for a different look.  

How do you wear yours?

(Scarf shown is the Citron color, one of my favorites!)

::Craft Show:: A Mini Series

You know how I've been talking forever about doing a craft show?  My Pinterest boards have been all a flurry with display ideas and logo redesign.  By now you have to be wondering what's up...

Well, I've gotten up enough guts to give it a shot!  Ahhhh! 

I'll be doing the 11th Annual Holly Days Shopping Event

At Sanderson High School (my alma mater... class of 2000!)

December 1 and 2, 2012

With as much reading as I've done to get ready for this silly thing, I thought it might be helpful for me to do a mini series about how I'm getting ready for my very first craft show, so I'll be posting periodically about the whole she-bang.  I'm sure to make a ton of mistakes along the way and I can imagine that it is going to be pretty funny with big 'ol pregnant me peddling all my wares in a 10x10 foot space!  Here's a little preview of what I plan to sell...

Christmas stationery (made out of heavyweight watercolor paper and pieces of a vintage hymnal covered in a hint of gold glitter), chunky knit infinity scarves in bright fall colors, happy paintings, knit baby hats and brightly painted memo boards.  I'm sure I'll come up with a few other goodies along the way, but that's it for now.

Wanna see my whole line of knit infinity scarves?

Oh and yes, that is a new logo.  But that's a whole post in its self, so you'll have to stop back in for the back story.

I can't wait to have you join me on the road towards my first craft show.  Have you done one before?  I'm dying to hear your best tips!  Leave them in the comments below or shoot me an email.

Spring Line: Baby Love!

The shop is blooming with baby love right now. Come visit, won't you?

Special thanks to my beautiful newborn baby model, Emmie!

(She's the one we welcomed with a Peter Rabbit Baby Shower.)