Designers Downtown Market

This past Saturday was the Designers Downtown Market September show. I spent the last week getting packing and getting ready for the show. My husband helped me at the show and it was our best show yet from this promoter. So I thought I would share a few photos of my setup from the show.

The setup still needs a bit of work, but it worked very well at the show. I also wanted to point out my new banner (seen in the third picture.) One of my friends worked hard for the past two weeks to get this banner made from my show.

Anyway, I know this is a quick post. Hopefully I will have more to post later.

Earring Cards and Earring Displays

Since these go hand in hand, I decided to blog about them together.

I am currently getting ready for an upcoming show, so I thought I would share my latest earring displays with you.

I started making these earring cards several shows back. I got the idea for them from The Beading Gems blog posting: Making your own earring cards. They stand up well even in a light breeze. Here is a photo of my earring cards.

I used a business card template in Microsoft Word to create these cards. I have a design on the front and background information on the back of the card. I also include the URL of my Etsy store on the back of the card. Here are some examples:

After I print and cut the cards, I then fold the ends to stablize the card.
I have used these cards on my tabletop in previous shows, but I decided to hang them for my upcoming show. I like the idea of hanging the cards, because hanging invites more touching. I bet you are wondering what I am going to hang the earring cards on.

Several weeks ago my husband and I purchased two sets of louvered shutters like these. I attached the louvered shutters together with a pair of hinges. Not very hard to do, I simply drill piolot holes in the shutters and screwed them together.

These shutters will make the perfect display for my earring cards.

Hope you enjoyed todays craft show tip.

A Quick Idea to Create In Your Face Marketing at Craft Shows

Ever been in a craft booth looking at merchandise? Did you have to stoop or bend over to see what the crafter was selling? It is not a nice feeling and it does not help your sells. If a customer has to stoop to see your products, they may weary quickly and leave your booth before you get a chance to sell your products.

We need to make our customers comfortable in our booths. A good way to accomplish this is to raise the height of our tables. Our products should meet our customers at or near eye level to best accomplish sales.

If you are like me, you have purchased a standard folding table to display your products on. The height of a standard table is around 29 inches tall. For best viewing, our tables should measure 36 to 40 inches tall.

So here is my quick tip of the day: Raise your table’s height for your best marketing chances.

A quick and easy (DIY) way to raise the height of your table is to use leg extensions. There are commercially available extenders on the web.

However I decided to make my own. I simply measured the diameter of my table’s foot. Then, with measurements in hand, I went to the hardware store and purchase PVC pipe that was slightly larger than my table’s foot. My husband cut them into eight inch lengths (add a little more than you need in height) and filed down the edges so they were level. Once they were cut and finished, I simply slid the extender over my table leg. Viola, instant leg extenders. The entire project cost me less than $10 and a little elbow grease (okay so it was my husband’s grease :})

Just two quick notes:

1. The extenders will slip off and on, so I usually apply them while I am setting up at a show.
2. If you have more than one table, be sure to measure each, since tables vary in size.

Here is a quick website that showed me how to make the extenders.

http://www.jankrentz.com/displaypage.php?ID=43

Hope you liked the article today and find it useful. Have a great day!