MFi7 - My Crafty Diary

chickadee

Hi there,

I have been enjoying your diary so far. I have ventured into the world of card-making with a view to raising money for charity. I sold a few to raise money for Tenovus (Welsh cancer charity) recently, mainly through family & friends, but I am running the Great North Run in September and have a charity place that I have pledged to raise £400 for a local cancer charity.

My question was really about craft fairs. How much do they cost, generally speaking, where do you find them advertised and how much stock would you say you needed to do justice to getting a stall?

You seem to be really successful so far, so well done and good luck!

chickadee

intheblackfinally

Hi chickadee,

Firstly good luck for the run and also for selling cards for charity - good for you!

In my experience craft fair costs can vary dramatically depending on where you have a stall. I usually find them advertised in local press, free newsletters etc and these local stalls seem to cost about £10 - £15 (although if you are selling for charity they may give you a discount). However it is also worth approaching local schools, groups etc to see if they will let you have a stall at their fetes, fairs etc and then maybe offer a percentage of your takings to them.

With regard to stock it depends on how much you sell your items for. I have found that if i take say approx 50 cards, 100 bars of soap & 25 other bath & body projects together with some jewellery that this makes a good display and gives the customer a nice choice. However it is really hard to judge how much to take to cover stall costs as you never really know how much you are going to sell. My rule is "its always better to take too much & possible sell it than not have enough and sell out". You can always bring home what dos'nt sell and use them for the next fair.

My advice to you would be to start small (with say a local school fair etc) and work up to larger ones just to break you in gently. Also don't get disheartened if at first you don't sell much - I found that my first few fairs were complete disasters (i did'nt even cover the cost of my stall!) but once I got known I started selling lots and making a nice little profit - all I need to do know is get back into the swing of it myself!!!.

Hope this helps but if you would like any other info then just let me know - feel free to PM if you prefer.

Good luck.

Newbird

Wow, just wanted to say well done, for clearing your debts and for your ongoing efforts. I think you are doing really well, and that you are an inspiration to others too. :A

Hope it continues going well for you. I am going to have to get myself organised, if only there were another 12 hrs in each day I'd have time! lol

chickadee

Thanks for that ITBF, very useful info. I had been selling my cards for £2, with a pledge that £1 goes directly to the charity. In reality, I just tipped the £2 into the charity pot and stood the costs of the cards as I enjoyed making them and it was more of a hobby really.

I can understand the craft bug completely. I don't want to add up what I have spent on materials, equipment, storage, etc, etc. it would be too scary!

My mum, who is 77, took a selection of my cards to her club one evening and from that I had quite a few requests for specific types of cards. The type of card requested the most was Sympathy cards :eek: .

I need to get cracking again; I made so many (or at least it felt like that) that I didn't want to make any more for a while. And, like you I need to make a dent in my huge stash of craft supplies.

Take care and good luck in your challenge.

chickadee

intheblackfinally

Good luck chickadee - at least you are getting orders for cards - everything has gone a bit quite for me at the moment!

I have just taken advantage of the 5p listing day on Ebay and listed a few unwanted things/duplicates from my crafting stash for sale together with a few new designs of toppers i have made so hopefully in 5 days I'll have a bit more for the total (every little helps).

However I am now trying desperately to get more visitors to my little website shop - does anybody have any ideas which won't cost a fortune? I already add a flyer to each ebay package I send out and have flyered my village and the neighbouring one but without success. Any ideas would be really gratefully received.

Well I'm off to make a few more cards so that I can hopefully take some into playgroup on Thursday (if I can pluck up the courage to ask the leader!).

intheblackfinally

Wooohooo I've just sold two sets of toppers on Ebay for £5.00 (after fees etc) so thats a bit more for my total.

intheblackfinally

Hi all,

Just sold another set of toppers for £2.99 after fees so thats a little bit more for the total - its creeping up slowly!!

Also finalising a date with my friend tomorrow for her to hold a party in her house for me so that I can sell my creations to all of her many friends (I'm giving her 30% of takings which shes well happy with!) so that should hopefully net a few more quid for the pot - fingers crossed xxxx.

Just going to work on a few more topper designs for ebay as they seem to selling ok at mo whilst little boy is asleep (in between cooking roast dinner, entertaining 5 year old & taking pain killers for a pulled muscle in my shoulder) so wish me luck!

Still looking for ideas on how to promote my website shop too so these would be gratefully received.

Back later - take care everyone and happy crafting!!

intheblackfinally

OK its time for today's update:-

Well the good news is that I have sold another £3.95 worth on Ebay so that's helping the total.

The bad news is that I still have'nt managed to get samples of cards ready yet to contact shops with, with a view to selling them! However I am hoping that the kiddiewinks are tired tonight and will both fall asleep pretty early so that I can get cracking on that task.

Also on my hitlist tonight is to design a small flyer for people to hold a party (or just buy a card) to go with some brochures I am getting paid to deliver round my village this month so fingers crossed I get these done and they enable me to sell a few more items.

Well off to chase the children round the garden to work off my dinner and tire them out!!!!

Hopefully tomorrow I will have a firm date to put in my diary for the party my friend is going to hold for me - lets hope we both earn a few quid from it.

chickadee

Hello ITBF,

Just a note about your party. I'm sure you know this already, but when I have been to retail parties, such as candles, Pampered Chef, etc., they always offer an incentive if someone books another party from that one. It seems to be the hardest sell of the evening to get someone to book the next party so that the chain can continue. I think it is called network marketing. If you can get more bookings from this one, that will help.

Also, another thought has just occurred to me. Could you get in with your local school's PTA? If you offer the school a percentage of your takings, perhaps you could do a fund-raising evening for them. Do you do any demonstrations or workshops? They could be good fun and would get people more involved than just looking at goods. If you provided a small kit of materials (for a nimonal fee) and then spent half an hour showing people what to do, they could make their own card and take it away. You could then spend the rest of the evening showing your other cards, jewellery, etc.

Just some random thoughts. Hope they help.

x

ZoeGirl_3

Yeah, the school thing could be a good idea, there seem to be a lot of things like that opperating on and off at different places....

And the forward planning for the parties seems like a great idea, it could take off nicely for you, heres hoping!

Would love to try something like this, but live in a really small town, so may have to wait for it to happen. :P

Good luck anyway, I have had stalls in the past and they are really exciting, not always delievering but exciting all the same!! Will follow and see how you get on.