vol.25

Before and After: painted metal folding chairs

Hello! First off, it is super late, and I have every intention of heading to bed as soon as I get this post finished up. I have been meaning to share some before and after pictures of these chairs I painted for my craft show in September... but for some reason I havent really been able to get motivated enough to do so. Until now that is, I have no idea why I get the idea to finally do so months later and at 11:00 o'clock at night... but nonetheless, here they are. :)

This was suuuper fun, and really helped personalize my "space" at the craft show. It was a pretty cheap way to bring in some color to my booth. The red chair you see in the before picture was so oxidized that sitting on it would most definitely give you a red behind! Our company avoided it like the plague. I really couldnt blame them either...

I lightly sanded the chairs, and I believe it took 3 cans to cover these. 4 cans would have been better, but I was on a strict time schedule, and got impatient after the three cans. :) I used Krylon's yellow called "bright idea"    After dry, I used acrylic paint, and painted hearts, flowers etc. on the chairs. I think it would be fun to use a stencil and get graphic, or even paint the folding chair to look as though it had a floral "cushion." After painting the designs, I finished it off with 2 coats of a clear gloss. I used the stuff in a can. :) No more red behinds here!

Fun, fun, these would be neat in a studio. Or... how totally perfect would it be to collect a bunch of thrifted folding chairs, and paint them specifically for a wedding? To match the theme, or even write messages on the back that pertain to the couple? Ok, so maybe thats a little out there... :)

I had originally planned to do a strip of chalkboard paint on the back where a name could be written, kind of like a director's chair, but ran out of time. :) I ended up liking the end result just the same.

So... does anyone have an old folding chair lying around? I dare you to get creative with it! Be sure and post pictures of your project in the vol25 flickr group! :)

Ok doke... my bed is calling my name, so I'm signing off for the night!

i'm back from my show!

Things went really well. I wasnt sure what to expect in terms of sales, but I feel like considering the traffic we had, I did pretty good!  I learned alot that I'll be able to apply to next year, like buying two spots and creating more of an open feel for one... I met alot of really neat people!  I had a couple people tell me that my booth was they're favorite, and that just made my day.

this is how my booth looked at the beginning of the morning on Friday. I liked how it was set-up BUT I *think* the table was keeping the magority of the people from walking inside the booth. Kelli is an EXCELLENT ( http://www.kellilynnphotos.com/ ) Prosser photographer I met through etsy, and she stopped by to see if I needed any help. We brainstormed some ideas and re-arranged the booth to look like this...

... it wasnt as put together, but more inviting I think. the table cloth wasnt long enough to pin the end together... and the pictures were hanging off the end of the peg board BUT we were taking advantage of the prime real estate spots, the back wall, and the front sides of the booth... I think it ended up working out better this way.

I sold a few chalkboards, and a customized painting (the others will be listed in my etsy shop this week) a bunch of 8x10's some misprints that I brought in at clearance prices, and also some of my new photo blocks! :) I handed out a ton of business cards, and spread the word about etsy! I even added a new product line that will be making its way into the shop... polaroid sized prints!

I called them art polaroids, I tried the polaroid heart idea I refrenced to last week, ( http://vol25.typepad.com/vol25/2009/09/craft-show-inspiration-and-the-super-fun-digital-desktop-poladroid.html ) but it took up too much space to do in a booth. Maybe next year. :)

It was nice spending the weekend with Jaydon, my parents watched the kids for us all weeekend so it was like a mini vacation. :) I was pretty proud of him though, he stayed in the booth by himself on a couple different occasions, long enough for me to pick us up something to eat, and to check out the other vendors. He said he made sure to tell everyone that he was just the husband and that I would be back. The booth defintiely had a ladies feel. ;)

here i am working on a new monster/animal themed series for kids! This show had me brainstorming ideas/new products that kids would appreciate. I'm thinking giant posters for kids to color would be a big hit! If I can have them printed cheap enough I think it would be really fun to do. 

I was in a good spot, right next to the vendors and almost at the center of town, BUT I was right next to the sweetest lady selling suuuper awesome te-pees (which inspired another drawing) among other things, and another local artist from Richland selling really neat copper spinners.. .VERY mesmorizing. Anyhow really great products, but definitely attention grabbers for the kids. The mom would be searching through my prints and the kids would be tugging on her shirt saying "mom can we look at the tee-pees!? Or mom look at these things!" SO, this led me to thinking I needed to have a way of appealing to the kids. Two 10x10 spots and a few coloring posters should help me out in that department. :) So long as I dont end up baby sitting the kids, while the parents shop other booths I should be alright, right? :)

the kids stopped in for brief visits. :)

I ordered the EZup with the awning, and after the second day came up with a way of attaching a sign to the awning. I used a piece of 8.5x11 cardboard and duck taped some fishing line to the cardboard, then attached my sign with masking tape. Clothes pins attached it to the awning. :)

The street painting was going on all day saturday, we didnt get to really check out everyone's work until after we had the booth all packed and loaded. We met an incredibly talented local artist named Rick Gallegos, he was really fun to talk with and I loved his piece, the eyes have so much emotion!

I owe a big thank you to my grandma for helping with the kids early friday morning, and my parents for spoiling my kids all weekend... and a big thanks to all those that stopped by and said hi! :) Also want to extend a thank you to everyone who wished me the best of luck, it was really sweet! :)

Wish me luck! First show tomorrow!

Wheeew... what a busy last couple of days! The car is packed and loaded, and I'm trying to take this time to think of all the things I'm forgetting. Because I know there is a few things. I had to share a sneek peek at my mini "store."

More to come next week! I am taking this opportunity to hopefully get rid of some excess inventory I've been packing around, before our move. If your in the Prosser area stop by and say Hi! I'm marking my stuff down so it will mooove! :)

You can see a peek at the chalkboards, I really love how they turned out, you can also see the wood blocks too! :)

Anyway my back is killing me, and my head hurts! I'm going to bed early tonight and I'll be up before dawn. Things reaaallly worked out good. Jaydon and my dad are waiting on material to be delivered so they'll be able to help me set-up! Yay! Such a relief there... they have all day off. Anyhow, lets hope everyone likes my stuff as much as you guys do! :) Hope you have a great weekend!

craft show inspiration - and the super fun digital desktop poladroid

I found this image on flickr probably a year ago... and loved it. It dates back to cookie magazine. Anyhow, lately I've been revisiting the idea. I mean how cute would this be on a wall at the craftshow? The poladroid makes it possible, and affordable too. If you havent heard of the poladroid you have GOT To rush on over and take a peek. Its free (although donations are welcome) Basically you drag a picture into the poladroid and it spits the picture back out. You even get to wait for it to develop like a real polaroid, and you can shake it too! :) When its finished developing you have  your very own polaroid. The tones in the photographs are awesome. They really turn out looking like a vintage polaroid.

 

 

Its DEFINITELY addicting! :) So download at your own risk. ;)

Officially preparing for my "first" craft show!

I decided to make the commitment, and I am now "officially" preparing for the show. I sent my application and money in the mail yesterday! I'm going to share any tips I've picked up along the way. And all the helpful resources I've found on the internet. :) So, I'll have a new category set up. Hopefully it will help someone else out in the future!

TENT:

My first task was to find a tent. I wanted to give myself plenty of time for shipping. Purchasing a tent is a pretty big initial cost, but a necessary one. :) I looked at several tents, and decided that I wanted one with walls, another fairly large chunk of change... but I really wanted the support and protection. It gets windy here in this part of Washington, and I think they will come in handy at one point or another! Plus, they are going to help stabilize the tent, so I'll be able to hang some of my prints and paintings. I decided on an EZ-up I've seen them in person, and they are really so much easier to put together then a standard tent.

 

Hut Shop's prices were VERY comparable if not a little better then others I had found. They are also offering free shipping right now, so that was a plus. They claim 75% of they're shipping orders are received within 3 days... another plus in my eyes! I googled them, and didnt see anything particularly bad about they're service... so I'm placing my order with them tonight.

BANNER:

Everyone says your banner is the first thing they see... make an impression with it! I ended up buying my banner from halfpricebanners.com. I bought a full color 2x6 foot banner for 36.00! Shipping is included in that price too. :) It is already on its way, and I'll keep you updated on the quality. The service so far has been PERFECT. Quick response to my questions, and they seem very thorough. Here is what my banner graphic looks like!

...so you'll know what to look for at the show! ;)

MY SETUP: I have the layout of the booth drawn to scale. So now I have a good idea of where everything will fit.

 

You can click the image to make it a little bigger still. We have two old metal folding chairs, and I'm "planning" to sand them down and paint them yellow. This color in fact.    Its called "Bright Idea" by Krylon. After I paint the chairs yellow I think I'm going to paint some white hearts on the back and seal them with several layers of a clear gloss spray. I'm excited to get started on them!

This was the inspiration board that helped me decide my color scheme etc.

The yellow clip on lights are my favorite part of this whole thing. They're battery powered and clip to a shelf or work as a desk light. wal-mart has them for 10.00 a piece, but when I went yesterday they were clearancing them out at 7.00 a piece! Yay.  They had 5 left. The area rug is a great size for $19. My wal-mart was out of stock though, so unless I get to the other local wal-mart in time.. I may need to skip it altogether. The table lamp is one I already have, and the book is a new one I put together and ordered from blurb. Its a little mini portfolio showcasing ALL my prints from the time I started back in 2007. I have a little table easel/stand for it to sit on. I'll try to share some pictures of it soon!

I found a shower curtain at Target on clearance for 9.00 so I bought that to use instead of the linen curtains you see above. I cant find a picture of the curtain online anywhere... but its beige in color and has a subtle link pattern to it. :) I also ordered a t-shirt from zazzle with one of my best selling ( remember happiness ) images on it. :) It just came in yesterday and I love love it! I went with the burnout style and I'm happy to say that it is a light material, but it isnt that sheer! I may end up wearing a tank underneath. I need to try it on again, but I'm really impressed with the quality and vintage soft type feel the shirt has. Shipping was suuper fast too. So now I can wear my art.

WALLS:

The walls was where I spent most of my brainstorming time. It seems like everything I found was so expensive. I really needed something that would hold my art, and everything I found was either really expensive or just not my thing. On the way back from our camping trip (which was a bust btw!) jaydon and I were brainstorming ideas, I mentioned peg board and Jaydon thought we could make that work. So I started researching it online and came across this article by Joe Bartz. It was soo helpful, and this image of his booth with the pegboard walls was so exciting.

I started thinking of how nice it would be able to hang things everywhere! I can even use my asker containers with pens and watercolor pencils for the customizable paintings. I can hook them in the back corner by our table.

Then of course there are sooo many hooks and clips/hardware etc. for pegboard. AND... I can paint it if I want! I'm planning to designate certain areas with yellow paint, and even write/paint on the panels. More to come on that later! So, with the wall situation figured out I was free to move onto other ideas. My Tour Prosser series got a little facelift in some areas, and I also completed two new prints in that series.

Now the entire set coordiantes, and I'm planning to really focus on these at the show. Well, highlight them anyhow. People in Prosser take alot of pride in our old buildings, so I hope they do well. Jaydon is cutting me some square blocks out of wood and I'll be adhering them to each piece. Another fun new project!

TABLECLOTH:

I've been hearing alot of people use sheets for they're tablecloth and pinning the sides. I want it to completely cover my table to the floor so I went with a full size sheet. Hopefully it wont be too big! I bought one white flat sheet for 7.00. I also found a yellow (perfect shade) plastic table cloth at wal-mart for 1.50 that I may use on top of the white if I need a little more pop of color.

DISPLAY for prints:

I ended up buying 2 white beverage tubs from Target. 4.99 a piece. They are suuuper wide, so turned I should be able to fit a TON of prints in each one. They are also really convenient, handles on both sides. I can have them loaded ahead of time, and just grab and go!  

I should also note that I'll be THRILLED if I break even this time around. With the initial cost of setting up, and I admit I may be going a little overboard. I think my planning/decorating love is kicking in double force! I'll be set for next year though, and if I just tell myself that this is really for marketing purposes then I should be ok. Which reminds me I ordered 1,000 double sided business cards from overnight prints for about 49.00 dollars

I'm hoping to come back with... NONE. :)

Well, I think thats about as far as I've gotten. It took me a couple days to finish this post, so my craft show progress might end up being a thorough article after the fact! :) Definitely staying busy around here! I'm also upcycling 10+ cabinet doors with chalkboard paint and "frames." So, I'm excited to see how that will go too. :)

Wish me LUCK! I'm going to need it....