Castleton Christmas Craft Fair November 2014

After a break of a couple of months I attended a great craft fair at Castleton last Saturday.  it coincided with the switching on of the Christmas lights so the village was bustling despite the weather which was misty with occasional rain.

To get into the Christmas feel I set up my table with a red gingham cloth, made new price cards in red and added red lights to my white display tree. 

 As well as my usual goodies I brought along my mini Christmas Stockings and a new make for this year, mini bunting in a choice of Christmas or vintage/retro style fabrics.

It was a busy fair with a great range of stalls from turned wood to beautiful silver jewellery.  I also met a few familiar faces which is always nice. 

One particular one that caught my eye was Go Vintage, a wonderful selection of vintage and retro collectables.

It was a really enjoyable day, I made a profit and sold out of my Christmas mini bunting.  However I do have a few mini Christmas Stockings left so they will be appearing in my online shop.  

And finally.... as always there was a great selection of dogs visiting the fair but the one that caught my eye was Billy, who as well as being cute was the best dressed dog!

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

From a personal point of view I have always felt that Christmas should start around 2 weeks before the 25^th December.  I hate seeing mince pies for sale in October and avoid looking at Christmas Decorations until I have to admit defeat in early December.  Where other children wanted to open their presents before the big day I was horrified at the thought and although I am now grown up I would never peak, shake or rip the wrapping paper!

 However as a seller I have learnt that I have to embrace the festive season a lot earlier.  Last year I was a bit late in getting my Christmas Stockings online so this year I had to be more organised. 

Some sellers have had their Christmas ranges up for sale since October but I opted for a mid-November launch to tie in with CRAFTfest, a online craft fair.  This has hopefully given enough time for sales but is not too early for the magic to run out!

So having launched my new range of Mini Christmas Stockings at CRAFTfest they are now available from my Folksy shop. 

This year I found a great range of new retro fabrics as well as some of my favourite fabrics from last year. 

I have also included some individual gingham designs for those who like to be more traditional.

Although I hope I have good sales this year lets hope there are a few left so I can use them to decorate my own home!

Flower Brooches

I just had to share these!

As part of the Folksy Summer School goodie bag there was a pack of small fabric squares, samples from Ray-Stitch of their lovely range of plain cotton.

It was such lovely material but was too small for patchwork but was just the right size to make petals for a brooch.  

Each square was trimmed, making it into a quarter circle.  I then stitched the two straight edges of each quarter to make a cone.  

Flattening the cone so the seam was at the back I stitched along the open edge in a small running stitch, adding six more petals in a continuous chain.  

When the running stitch was pulled it gathered the cones into petal shapes, I then stitched each end together making a circle and glued it onto a brooch back.

Looking for inspiration for something to fill the centre I looked through my scrap bag and found some left over bobble trim.  I cut the pom-poms off and then mixed and matched them with each brooch and glued them into place.   

I won't be selling these, some may become presents but I have a feeling I will be wearing these myself! 

Folksy Summer School 2013

Last weekend I attended the Folksy Summer School, it was held at the Discovery Centre in Ecclesall Woods, Sheffield, a lovely setting and the weather was with us.

Unfortunately I was unable to attend the second day but thoroughly enjoyed the first day.  As well as a great goodie bag we had talks from makers and experts, demonstrations, good food and “nice people” (a Mini Moderns joke)!   

Luckily I took a big notebook as there was a lot of information to take in.  It certainly gave me lots to think about but three things really stood out.

Tell a Story:

• Not just what you do but why do you do it
• Tell people about the journey your projects take, the good and the bad
• Tell people about yourself 

Branding:

• It’s more than a logo
• Use contact opportunities to reinforce your brand, goes back to telling a story
• Reinforce your brand with existing customers

Identify What You Enjoy:

• Look at all elements of the making journey
• Look at expanding into other aspects such at teaching or demonstrations
• But don’t forget you still need to do the boring stuff!

So as part of my forward plan I will:

• Review my online profiles, more "why” not just “what”.  
• Look at the information I send out with my items, make it more personal.  
• Start a “To Do List” making sure the boring/urgent items get done as well as the nice/non urgents!  

And finally this blog, the summer school made me realise that I enjoy writing as well as making so I will be putting aside time to improve it, post regularly, tell the story........

Its a First!

Well two, for me!

My first first is attending a summer school.  It takes place this weekend and is being run by Folksy, the online market place where I sell my makes.  It has talks, demonstrations and lots of advice for crafty sellers.  I am particularly looking forward to meeting fellow makers and hopefully making some new friends!  

My second first is selling at a Craft Fair, I have at last taken the plunge and booked a couple of Thursdays at a regular Craft and Gift Fair that is held in Bakewell. 

So wish me luck, I will post updates and let you know how I get on.

P.S.  I am in the process of updating the layout of my Blog, many thanks to Janet and others who offered me support and advice on the Discussion Groups at Linkedin.   I will pull together all their advice and share it with you.