Gift Card Holder

Someone just sent me a message through Etsy this morning and gave me this great idea!

This is a variation of my coin purse which holds a gift card perfectly. What a fun way to wrap it:-)

Just listed it in my shop.
Juice Pouch Gift Card Holders

Craft Fair Report- My first show!

I did my first craft show yesterday at a Secondary School in North Vancouver. Here is my set-up before the fair started. I tweaked it a bit, but this is basically what I went with.
It was an interesting experience and I learned a few things:

1) Be more selective: In future, I think I'll do ONLY shows with other handcrafters. I actually never thought to ask this when signing up for shows. There were so many re-sellers there. I was surrounded by them, and so naturally most customers assumed I was a re-seller too. One of the most frequent questions I had all day was "did you make these?"
This was something I never expected from a CRAFT FAIR. It makes me think that many people who didn't stop at my table may have thought my items were mass-produced:-( That's kind of disheartening.
I should have paid attention that it was advertised as a "craft fair and market"

2) Make better signs: I needed bigger, full-colour signs with my store name. My little signs were okay, but I think I needed a large, main sign. I might actually make a sign saying 'www.juicybags.ca' instead of just the name.
Also think I will add a sign about recycling. I thought it was obvious, but several folks didn't realise the materials were recycled.

3) Offer an incentive to visit my store: I am going to add stickers to the back of my business cards with an incentive discount for my Etsy store to help bring hits there after the show.

4) Tweak my set-up: I will make a better riser for the back of the table that can be easily set-up. I was kind of winging it yesterday and nearly wasn't ready in time. I'm not sure that I need both of the grid-walls behind the table. I found that most shoppers were focused down at the table and didn't notice the stuff behind as much.
Perhaps use some props to show the bags in use, what they can be used for, etc.

5) Pack better: I need to get a few plastic crates with lids to pack everything into for the shows. I had stuff in bags and it took me 5 or 6 trips back and forth from the car for set-up and take-down. Better yet- bring hubby along for someone to help and some friendly company when things are slow.

The day started a bit slow with only a trickle of traffic. Since it was my first time, I took a long time for set-up and was still tweaking things during the morning. The tables were set very close together and the 2 sellers on my sides also set things up beside their tables. Unfortunately, this meant customers couldn't come around to see the bags I had hanging on the grids. I hung them as high as I could to try to show them off.
As I expected, my smaller items did much better than the bags. I sold quite a few little wallets.

I was surprised to see that the potato chip-bag and candy-bag pouches were very popular. I only had a few to sell because I was having some trouble sewing on the vinyl surface. I got a custom order for 2 as well, so I'll have to make more of them for the fairs next weekend. I would say it was a pretty positive experience. I borrowed my friend's van (thanks Yvette!) and I'm not used to driving something so big. I felt like a delivery driver:-)

I'm sure each show is going to be different, depending on the area and the demographic. Should be fun to see how next weekend goes.

Friday Nov 14th, 5-9 pm I'll be at Annieville Elementary School
for their Christmas Craft Fair.

Saturday and Sunday, Nov 15 + 16th, 10 am to 4 pm I'll be at
Arbourside Court in the Piano Lounge- Home for the Holidays Craft Show
13751-74th Avenue,
Surrey, B.C.

First try at a laptop sleeve

I was attempting to make a laptop sleeve, but I ended up with it being exactly the right size for a MacBook. I'm just not sure I want to make lots of these- it was a bit challenging.
I do love the inside- it's so soft and cushy- I just want to curl up inside it. I used 2 layers of quilt batting so it's really nicely cushioned. Oh, and it's hard to see here, but it has a zipper across the top to close it.

I listed it for sale in my shop with more pictures here:
Padded Macbook Sleeve

Table display needs work!

Here's my dry run of my table display for the craft fairs. This is just a coffee table, so I think the actual tables I will have will be larger. This isn't a great photo since I was doing this at night in a room with poor lighting. I will have a table skirt as well as the white cloth. I think I'll make some signs for prices for each type of item too. Perhaps I need the whole back of the table to be raised, not just the middle? (that's a box covered with a cloth)
The bags will be hanging from 2 grid walls that we had originally bought to hang our clothing items at the fitness club. I've been wanting to get rid of them for years but luckily (thanks to Jon who ignored my pleas to get rid of them) we still had them and the hanging rails too!
I am wondering if I'm going to need space on here for doing transactions, but I think I'll bring a clipboard for that instead. Let's hope I DO have some transactions!

Custom order laptop bag -it's done!

Just finished this custom order for a customer from Etsy. I think it turned out pretty well. She wanted a fun and colourful laptop bag. I made it with double layers of denim on the sides and bottom and reinforced the bottom with nylon webbing and extra stitching. I hope she likes it!

My shop is on Trend Magazine!

A writer found my shop through Twitter and she wrote an article about it for Trend Magazine online. I am so excited because today it was on the front page! This website gets about 8 million views per month.
This is the lead picture- Ally modelling one of my bags:-) Isn't she cute?

Here is the article Trend Magazine
It was written by Pearl, who is a crafter herself and writes a jewelry blog here Beadinggem

I also got my second Etsy sale yesterday (yeay!) and a custom order for a laptop bag which I'm working on today. It's so fun to create new products to fit a customer's needs. Will post photos here when it's done!
My first craft fair is this Saturday at Carson Graham Secondary School in North Vancouver. Feel free to come by and support me if you're nearby that day. I've got so much to get ready and lots more sewing to do. Luckily, I finished my set of work shifts last night, so I'm off now till Sunday night. Off to ship my order and get a few supplies now.

It's been a great weekend:-)

Oh, try this- it's cute!

I got this from http://kidtechguru.blogspot.com

Try it- it's neat and fun!
Go to Google and click on Images, then search for a particular image (anything you want) Then once the search goes through, replace the text in the address bar with this:


javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300; y5=200; DI=document.getElementsByTagName('img'); DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i-DIL; i++){DIS=DI[ i ].style; DIS.position='absolute'; DIS.left=(Math.sin(R*x1+i*x2+x3)*x4+x5)+'px'; DIS.top=(Math.cos(R*y1+i*y2+y3)*y4+y5)+'px'}R++}setInterval('A()',5); void(0);

...watch what happens...!!