This past weekend I participated in the Brockport Arts Festival! It was my third year being a vendor at this show.
I didn’t know how to mentally prepare for the festival this year, partly because I haven’t really worked on my art business lately, but mostly because I was so uncertain about how it was going to go because this show was going to be so different: I wasn’t bringing my jewelry, which is hands down my top seller. Instead, I was bringing only originals and prints. I’ve only ever sold a few prints at any festival, even the two day ones. I was taking a big risk, and with this being one of the more expensive shows that I do, I was really nervous that it was going to be a big flop.
Little did I know how unprepared for the weekend I actually was…
One of my 2017 goals was to rebrand my business by changing up colors and making it feel more cohesive…and then a week later, I decided to rebrand the rebranding.
Confusing, I know.
I’m really loving the new direction the business is going in. I feel more confident with how it’s going to look, and I think the business as a whole will feel more cohesive. I tried to tailor most of the Drawing a Day challenge towards the landscape and natural feel, and honestly, the ones that fit that theme were my favorites and even lowered my stress levels while completing them!
I was excited to start making my vision a reality. The tablecloths and runners were already here, but the displays needed to be made. Here’s the look I was aiming for for my booth display:
You may have seen in my AppleUmpkin post that I made some new updates to my booth displays. The displays that I had weren’t quite working for me, and I knew that I was going to need more and better displays for new products.
After browsing Pinterest, I really didn’t have any ideas on what I wanted for my note cards and new earring style. I found displays I liked, but I didn’t want to spend a ton of money if I wasn’t sure I knew that was going to be the display I’d use for a really long time.
I started to stress about the festival, and I was running out of time.
There was a day about a week before the festival that I was taking a van load of donations to a local second hand store, and at the bottom of my pile was a cardboard box full of wooden boxes. The boxes had been given to me years ago, full of art supplies. The boxes didn’t quite work for me for storage purposes, but I loved them too much to get rid of them.
Wooden boxes, before…
So in my basement they sat.
Last year I decided I should get rid of them, but I could never quite bring myself to actually take them out of the house.
And I’m so glad I didn’t!
They have dividers in the bottom half and a hinged lid, and are super sturdy. After some playing around, I figured out how to turn them into my displays!
I took two boxes and removed the hinges and hardware, then painted them black. The bottom halves became note card displays; I used to have them displayed in baskets, but you couldn’t see what styles were in the baskets, and this allows shoppers to see what styles are available at a glance.
Testing it as a note card display
The tops I took and hinged together. Once put on it’s side, I attached some ribbon for hanging the earrings on.
Box lids before…Box lids after!
One box I left the top and bottom together, but removed the handle and latches. After painting it black, it became the display for some of my Christmas items!
Testing out Christmas display layout
I didn’t take one of the box bottoms to the festival; it was supposed to hold my Christmas cards to sell. Yet again, the Note Card Gremlins attacked. Before one of the last festivals I did, all of the settings for the printer got messed up and note cards wouldn’t print properly. This time, my blank note cards disappeared, so I had to reorder new ones. After they arrived, my printer would print about 3/4 of the note card beautifully, but for the last couple of inches, the note card would get pushed crooked and print incorrectly. My tech guy (aka my husband) will be checking the printer and trying to remove the Gremlins from it soon, so I hope to have Christmas cards available soon.
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