CHRISTMAS CRAFT FAIR 2012

Another great craft fair. A lot of items sold out and I raised 1220.00 euro over the two days for a very worthy charity. All the hard work and extra effort on the stand presentation paid off. I have been offered another craft fair in a couple of weeks so I'm busy replenishing the sold out items.
The following is an idea of what I sold and for how much.

4 Christmas wreaths at 15 euro each
13 Christmas Stockings at 8 euro each
4   gift tags at 2 euro each
1 Advent Calendar at 40 euro
17 ribbon ornaments at 4 euro each
12 sets of tile coasters at 6 euro each
9  Desk notepad and pen at 6 euro each
74 Chocolate Snowmen bars  (Absolutely brilliant sellers. Sold out each day in first hour.2 euro each or 3 for 5
11 Wall coat hangers 8 euro each (reduced some to 6 euro towards end of last day)
63 Magic Reindeer Food 1.50 euro each
19 Fabric covered notice boards 8 euro small and 12 euro large
14 Pincushions 8 euro each
24 Herb Pot markers 4 euro each (reduced to 2 euro at end of last day)
4 Fridge magnets 2 euro each
12 Notebook and pen at 4 euro each  (reduced to 3 euro at end of last day)
11 Gift sets of cards at 6 euro each
5 Clipboards at 6 euro each
7  Santa's Magic Keys at 4 euro each

Hope you enjoy the video. Happy Weekend.

Christmas Craft Fair 2012

Well the car is all packed and ready for my 2012 craft fair. The above photo is one I took this week as I did a quick mock set up in my kitchen! Thanks to my very talented hubby I have a wonderful backdrop for my table. I am really pleased and delighted with the finish. I have made lots of new items this year. I am especially proud of my sewn items.  Do you see the Santa figure sitting in the background. It is from the Tilda range. I had so much fun making it. It will just be used as a prop and will not be for sale. All my stock is kept in big plastic containers hidden under the table and behind the tablecloth !

Fingers crossed now that there is a good turnout at the fair and that the weather improves.  As soon as I get a chance I will blog how the fair went and give more details of the items sold and prices etc.

Happy weekend.

Santa's Magic Key Tags

The above tags I designed  to use for the upcoming Christmas craft fairs. I printed them on canvas paper. The canvas paper made the colours  more vibrant and the texture  a little different. I added  a  vintage looking key from a  set by  K & Company Life's Journey Metal Art - Keys which were on offer at Joann's online store.   However the tags will go with any old keys you have lying around the house. The Santa photo and poem  I  found on two different boards on  Pinterest. If you would like to make some tags here is a Santa's Magic Key tag download  for you to print some of your own. You will get two per A 4 Sheet.

They cost very little to make and I hope to get approx 4 euro each at craft fairs. Happy craft fair preparations !

Pincushions for Christmas Craft Fairs using Tilda Fabric

One of my favourite craft designers Melissa Phillips, owner of Lilybeans Paperie creates the most beautiful pincushions. I just adore her work. On a wet winters day a little sunshine lights up my day just by clicking on her blog.  Some of her work is sold at her etsy store here.

I was so enamored with Melissa's pincushions I  had to try and make one of my own  using some of my treasured stash of Tilda fabrics. The Tilda fabrics I used were Tilda Fruit Garden Berrie pink and Molly Pink.

My pincushions do not have as many of the delicate little extras that Melissa added to hers. Enjoying myself  I continued on and  made  forty of them  to sell at this years Christmas fund raising fairs. I am really pleased with how they turned out and hope the Christmas fair visitors will be too. As 100% per cent of the funds raised go to a very worthy charity I hope Melissa does not mind me pincushion lifting hers !

The following photos give a little tutorial on how I made mine.

I laid out a 5.5-inch strip of Tilda fabric( Tilda fabric is 55 -inch wide)  and added lace and ribbon. I sewed it as one piece and then cut it down to 5.5 -inch squares.  

I prepared the same amount of co-ordinating fabric squares.

Pinning right sides facing , added bobbin trimming in between. Then sewed around the outside with 1/2 inch seam allowance and left small opening for turning.

When turned right side out I  pressed each of them to get rid of the creases.

I filled with soft toy filling and sewed up the opening.

Added white felt roses.

and little labels embellished with scraps of Tilda patterned paper.

Lovely bundle of fun.

All packed and ready for fairs.

More Tilda by Panduro Hobby - Christmas House and Flowergarden - projects

I spotted these wall rack coat hangers in a local discount store at a reasonable cost and decided to alter some with paper from the lovely TILDA Christmas House and Flowergarden range. The papers are great quality and the designs go well with my plans for my stall display at the Christmas fairs this year. I was pretty pleased with results so carried on making 34 of them. I made a couple of boy racks using paper from K and Company - Rough and Tumble line. The racks cost me 1.50 euro  each and I hope to sell them for approx 8 euro each for charity. Will let you know how I do in December !

For my CRAFT FAIR IDEA followers - some samples and tutorial below.

While I enjoy pottering  away on crafting projects I also like to improve my computer skills. I was inspired by the layout of a tutorial given on Nichole Heady's Papertrey ink blog to go and teach myself how to prepare the layouts below. Though I think I need a bit longer to learn how to take better photos. Bare with me it might be a while ! 

Supplies:

Patterned paper by Tilda (Panduro Hobby) Christmas House and Flowergarden ranges,

Mod Podge - gloss

Pink ribbon from stash

Go Kreate label die

Farrow and Ball emulsion paints

Shabby Chic Fabric Notice Boards

   

I spotted a fabric notice board in a shopping mall in Dubai costing approx 20 euro. Looking a little closer I could see it looked as if I could make something similar for the next craft fairs. I already had a nice stash of fabrics, batting,  ribbons. I knew there was a staple gun in the work shed. All I needed was a piece of light wood for the backing. Looking around the house I hit upon the idea of using an artists canvas board. They are pretty reasonable to buy and are light weight. This turned out to be a  really quick and easy project to make. With a little embellishment it makes an ideal stocking filler for the Christmas fairs.

 

 I started by cutting a piece of batting to the size of the canvas and attached it to the top of the canvas with a small piece of double sided adhesive tape in each corner.

I then placed it upside down on a piece of fabric(wrong side up) big enough for each side to fold over the edges and tuck under the wooden frame.

 I then started by stapling the fabric to the frame, pulling it tight.

 When I had attached the four sides. I tided up the corners by cutting a small amount off each corner so that I could tuck the fabric under neat and tidy.

 I then turned in over and laid out the ribbons in a suitable pattern. Make sure you cut the ribbons long enough to tuck under at the back.  You can use as many rows as you like.

 The ribbons were attached with long straight sewing pins to keep them in place while I turned the frame over again and stapled the ribbons to the back tucking the ribbon edges under the frame too.

That's it. All it needs is a button or buttons depending on your preference. I could have used brads but that would have increased my cost base for each of the notice boards plus I like the idea of clipping notes on with paper clips or the altered pegs.

The tags I made using a tag template I had and I embellished with scraps of  papers from the  Tilda range (Flower garden and Christmas House) and added glittered stickers from Making Memories FA LA LA. The pegs I painted with acrylic pink paint and covered with scraps again from the above Tilda line.

The floral fabric and the pink one with red polka dots are from the Rosalie range in Ikea. The other red and white fabrics are from a local fabric shop.

Christmas Fair Best Sellers

The following was my experience of my first fair of the season. Both Christmas craft fairs were very successful. The first one I attended was held on a Saturday and Sunday from 10 to 4 each day. It was extremely well organised, in a lovely centre with lots of facilities. It was open to the public with no admission charge. There were many varied crafts with no two being the same. There were plenty of volunteers available for unpacking and packing the car, a well run cafe and we had  lovely weather. I had a very small area in a small room but I made the most of it. My fellow crafters in the room were lovely and we had great fun chatting during the few quiet intervals. I had a prominent sign advertising I was fund raising for a well known charity and I am sure this helped with sales. However I was very proactive selling and for the most part I stood out around at the front of the stall explaining what I was selling and would go around to the back to bag sales and take payment. I was attending another fair in a couple of weeks so I was under no pressure to sell. I didn't reduce prices at any stage. As luck would have it I did sell out on a number of items and I think it slowed down sales in the afternoon  on the Sunday. The low prices items encouraged people to buy and while they were at it, they were inclined to throw in another item or two.

In total I raised 851 euro.

I SOLD OUT  of
Christmas Table Teasers       25  at 6   euro
Magic Reindeer food          100  at 1   euro
Chocolate snowmen             50  at 2   euro 
Website and Blog books      11  at 5   euro
Desk calendar and notepad  12 at  6   euro
Earring holders                      18 at 6   euro
Christmas Wreaths                  3 at 15 euro
I also sold
Notebooks                            28 at 4  euro
Tooth Fairy Tins                    12 at 3  euro
Peg sets                                   7 at 3  euro
Gift cards                               16 at 2  euro
Bookmarks                              6 at 1  euro
Starlight mint tin                        7 at 2  euro

I hope this helps my blog visitors who are preparing for their own craft fairs. Though from my experience no two fairs are the same.

Christmas Craft Fair Items

Hope you all enjoy the above video I made today using the photos of the items I made for the past two craft fairs. I was really very fortunate. Nearly everything sold out and I raised an enormous amount of money for a very worthy cause.
I'll post tomorrow with a full list of details.

CHRISTMAS CRAFT FAIR DISPLAY

I decided this year I needed to add some height to my craft fair table display. I always look and see if I can adapt or alter something handy from around the house before I look in the shops. I get a great kick out of using something a little bit wacky but fun.  These two little stands are treasured by me for growing vegetables or sweet peas in the summer. I have had them for years and I get a great kick out of training little plants up them. They were a bit dishevelled and worn but loved all the same.  That was until I decided to give them a winter makeover.

I first removed the old and worn wicker, then washed and repainted, then added two fabric baskets. The photo below just shows one of the finished frames in a mock up preparation for the fair at home.

They were a great hit with the fair visitors. They loved them.  Displaying items at eye level was a great success. Every item I displayed on them sold out. What more could I ask for ? The above picture shows the three stages. Don't worry they will be out in the garden again come the Spring.

Fabric Wreaths

My goodness where on earth does the time go. I was away on  holidays for a few weeks and now I am up to my tonsils cutting, sticking and filling as I get ready for the Christmas fairs. I love it even though it is a  little bit of a rush. No stress though  it will all get done in the end. While away I spotted a lovely fabric wreath in a cute little shop in Mykonos. While chatting to the lovely owner of the shop I asked her if I could take a photo or two of some of the items on sale. I had made a little purchase so I was n't being too cheeky. She said photo away.

This is the one of the photos. The fabric is cut in strips,  tied in a knot and then glued to the frame.

The following is a photo of supplies I used to make my one in the top photos. It is really simple and takes about an hour to make. I used a different method to attach the fabric. I cut in squares of about 2.5 inch and then just poked them into wreath using the little embossing tool. Any fabric can be used, different textures would be good. I wanted to create a softer look so I filled it out using lots of plain cream squares.

Busily making a dozen at the moment !

Magic Reindeer Food

This year I am planning on making the Magic Reindeer Food in these little test tubes. I first came across them hereKerryspapercrafts but I couldn't purchase them at a good price until this year.  I ordered 250 of them online for this years craft fairs  but  accidentally I  hit the order twice. They were sent to my brothers home in the US for me to collect and take back to Ireland. Thankfully some sensible person completing the order rechecked with me and I was able to confirm I only wanted 250 !  You can imagine my brother and sister-in-laws bewilderment when they arrived. To finish the story I was stopped by customs on my return journey. The guy asked where I had been, how long I had been away for and why did I have so much luggage.  The poor man, I am sure he thought he had seen  and heard it all until he heard my explanation for the test tubes. It was so crazy it had to be true. He waved me on my way and wished me well !

I tried to source the reindeer stamp  used by Kerry on Ebay. The set was too expensive as I only wanted the reindeer stamp. I decided to make my own digital image using a card making software set.  If you would like to use it to make some of your own here is a link for my download.

AOK's Magic Reindeer Food Round Label 2 inch 

and the poem to punch and stick on the back of the above label

AOK's Magic Reindeer Food Poem Round Label 2 inch

I am planning on using red sugar strands to liven up the porridge oats in the containers. So wish me happy times filling and completing the remaining 240 or so tubes.  

I used a Papertrey Ink die for the tag and some bells and ribbons from stash.

Irish Tea Brack in a Jar

Photos of jars and baked Irish Tea Brack as promised. It is a great recipe to package in a jar. I packed flour and spices in plastic lunch bag on top of brown sugar and mixed fruit. Added two Irish Tea bags and gift wrapped. Instructions for making up and baking will be added to the tags later. I'll post recipe and the  instructions tomorrow.

For the Christmas tag I used Jolly by Golly by Cosmo Cricket and tag lifted from Danni Reid. I hope to make up the rest of the tags soon.  For the Halloween jar I just used bits and pieces left over from old paper sets. I think they are from My Minds Eye.

Happy Jar filling !