Flair on the Farm Holiday Boutique & Craft Show Display Ideas

It's that time of year again!

Saturday, November 22nd is another amazing show at Flair on the Farm.  I will have a booth there again this year and I'm so excited!  It's my favorite show of the year!  

I was thrilled to be able to participate in Flair on the Farm Spring Fling show in April as well.  Their shows always have great attendance and an amazing selection of vendors.  The Spring Fling show was no exception and I'm sure the Holiday Boutique will be even better!

My booth at the Spring Fling show in April 2014.

Vendor booths along side a rustic farm building.

The setting is rustic and charming!  Set on an actual working farm, there are vendors inside a antique barn and also outside on a manicured lawn area.

Shoppers outside the historic barn.

The spring show boasted over 60 vendors, a wine and mimosa bar, a food truck and tea stand.  The holiday show is expected to be another great one, with the addition of a gift wrap booth, dessert vendors and more.



My craft show display ideas and tips...

Each show is a challenge for me to find new and better ways to display my items.  I'm constantly adding and changing elements and no two booths are ever the same.

This past show, I had a lot more tea towels and had to be creative in finding ways to display them.  I finally settled on this clothesline approach.  I liked the way it separated my booth from my neighbor's booth without feeling like a wall. 

I also had extra towels laying on the table, but found I had to constantly fix the display after customers went through them or after the wind picked up.  I'm still thinking about a better way to display the towels.

For some of my smaller items, I used assorted tins and dishes to corral the individual pieces.  Paper gift tags were used for my pricing.  I've found if your items aren't priced you end up repeating yourself so many times during the show, it's better to label everything from the very beginning!

These wooden apple crates were a new item I added to my displays for this show.  They were an inexpensive and easy way to add some height to my display.  I found them at a local craft store on sale and spent less than $20 for two.  Eventually, I'd like to paint or stain them a nice color, but in the meantime they still look nice in the natural wood color.  Bonus--I used them to haul in other display pieces from my car!

Another thing I like to have at my shows is a little bowl of candy and a big stack of business cards.  The candy lures them in and the cards are a great way to get follow-up business.  This little mug was from my grandmother's set of dishes and it was just right for holding some hard candies.  The card holder was purchased off of Etsy from a shop called Creative Works.

Gorgeous farm buildings against a bright blue sky.

This show is one of my favorites and always has a unique selection of vendors.  Plus you can't beat the gorgeous setting.  It's a bit of a drive out to the country, but it's well worth it!  Hope to see you out there on Saturday, November 22nd!

My new friend, the blind barn cat.

View of the farm from the road.

Stitch Fix Box #3

I received my third Stitch Fix box last week, and this box was my favorite by far!  

If you aren't familiar with Stitch Fix, it is a personal shopping service that delivers your style fix straight to your door.  The selections are based on a detailed profile you fill out when you sign up with your sizing, preferences and colors you like.  Once the items arrive, you have 3 days to try them on and decide if you want to keep them or send them back.  If you send everything back, you only pay a $20 styling fee.  If you keep everything, your styling fee is deducted AND you get 25% off.  You can schedule your "fixes" to come monthly or less frequent if you like.

This month's box included 3 tops, 1 pair of jeans, and one cardigan in fun spring shades.  This is my first box without a scarf or accessory and I feel it was the best value because it contained only clothing pieces.

The box included coral skinny jeans again!!  Even though the website does not guarantee being able to exchange sizes, my stylist was able to resend the same jeans from last time in the next size up.  They fit much better (I could breathe this time!) and I decided to keep them.  The blue and white striped racerback tank was a great color and pattern for me, but it fit kind of weird at the bottom where the seams were.  I wasn't wild about the fit.

The second tank in the box had a polyester, chiffon front and a navy knit back.  I really liked the pattern  and it fit well, the knit back made it super comfortable.  It will be great for layering or wearing on its own.

The third top was a beautiful green knit top with a twist back detail.  The photos don't depict the brightness very well, but it's a really nice bright green.   There is a bit of chiffon fabric on the upper back as well.  I think I will get a lot of wear out of this one!

Lastly, I received a coral open front cardigan sweater.  I tried it on with my regular jeans, coral head-to-toe is not a good look.  It paired well with all the tops in my box.  I even tried the striped blue tank with it and found the tank looked better layered.  I probably would have sent it back though if I didn't love everything else in the box.   It was priced pretty high for a cotton tank top, but if you purchase the entire box you get a discount, so sending it back would have cost me more in the end.  

So that was box #3 for me.  I have had the same stylist for the last two boxes and I think she is doing well picking pieces I will like.  I can tell she's been checking out my Pinterest board too.  I have another box scheduled for next month, hopefully I get another good one!  Thanks for checking it out (and please excuse the smudged-up mirror! I didn't notice it until I loaded the pictures.  Darn kids!)

If anyone would like to give Stitch Fix a try, please use my referral code: https://www.stitchfix.com/referral/3410773

I get a credit towards my next fix for each of my friends who use the code.  

Craft Show Display Ideas #2

The spring craft show season is almost here!  I'm scouring Pinterest and going through my photos of past events and looking for ways to improve my displays.  My booth is different each time I do an event, and over the years it's evolved and changed.

Last November I was honored to be chosen as a vendor for the fall Flair on the Farm show and I think this booth was my best yet!   This was an outdoor event so I used a large canopy with a white backdrop to separate my booth from my neighbor behind me.

I made a fun fabric scrap garland to decorate the back wall of the booth and hold my sign.  I really like how that helped identify my booth and added some shabby flair.  For my upcoming shows I am going to work on improving my sign with a bit more homemade character.  Maybe embroidery? Or applique?

This was also the first show in a while that gave me a full 10ft x10ft booth.  I thought I would have so much room, but there just never seems to be enough!  I was one table short of what I needed so I ended up using my chair to display items. (I reclaimed it later in the day when my feet were tired!)

I was also given the challenge of a corner booth, so my other side of the booth had to be viewable from two sides.  This ended up being pretty challenging, I spent a lot of time shuffling things around.  I also wanted to be careful what items I placed on that table to detract from any possible theft.  The benefit of this corner location was a lot of traffic which outweighed any display challenges!

I put smaller items like rings and hairpins inside the booth where I could keep my eye on them. (Recognize that hairpin board from this post? I'm still so impressed with that late-night creation!)  Trays full of black beans provided an interesting display for the rings.   The shutters I found at a garage sale a while back helped hang some totes and added some height to the display.  I also had a sale basket on the ground with odds and ends that I wanted to get rid of.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with how this booth turned out.  I think I need to add at least one more table, or two, and maybe some more height for visual interest.  I really like this idea using those cheap wooden crates from craft stores.

I will be participating in the Flair on the Farm Spring Fling show coming up this weekend.  My booth is in the center of an aisle so my set-up will have to change.  I also plan on using another table and some new display pieces.  I will be taking lots of pictures of my booth this time so you can see how it all turns out.

If you are local come say hi to me at the show!  Here is the info:

DIY Hair Pin Display

As promised I am back to detail how I made one fantastic display piece out of and old picture frame, ribbon, fabric and hot glue!  (I apologize for the lack of pictures, but as you will see below, it was late at night and my mind was not functioning at full capacity!)

I ran across this blog post from Hip To Piece Squares in my search for creative display pieces for my upcoming craft show.  She used thick ribbons to beautifully display fabric covered button hairpins.  I pinned the post and vowed to come back one day and do this myself.

Fast forward a few months, and it's 11pm, the night before my first craft show of the season.  I suddenly realize I have no way to display my adorable hairpins.  I remembered this blog post, but had no thick ribbons or foam board, and a trip to the craft store at that time of night was out of the question. So I improvised....

I had an old 8x10 picture frame lying around that was missing it's glass due to an unfortunate household incident.  I took out the backing board, cut a piece of fleece the size of the board and then covered the board and fleece with a piece of linen blend fabric.  I pulled it tight as I could and hot glued it in place.

I had no thick ribbon on hand (of course!), so I used two strips of thinner ribbon placed close together.  I pulled them tight and hot glued them in place.  I would suggest measuring this part, since I eyeballed it and due to sheer exhaustion that night, mine are less than equally spaced apart.

I wiggled the backing back into the frame and I had a lovely display piece made from items I happened to have on hand at 11 o'clock at night.  I then proceeded to fall into bed, exhausted but excited for the next day!  I ended up selling many more hair pins than usual, and I can't help but believe it was due to my great new display piece.

Exciting Changes!

Some changes are in store for Blue Room Creations, along with the other artisans of Universal Mama!   We have decided to move our online home to a new website with links to each of the individual artists Etsy shops, photos and our blogs.  You can see our new site by clicking the banner below:

We are really excited about how this site came together!  You can shop by clicking on the Shop link at the top of the page.  We will list new themed items at the beginning of the month, and then add new items all month long, so check back often!  We also formed an Etsy team, Universal Mama Team, that will allow you to search for us as a group on Etsy.

Universal Mama was established in 2004 by a group of artisans with a focus on beautifully crafted items for children.  Today, our offerings still include toys, dolls, and cloth diapers, but have expanded to include products for the entire family.  Our spirit of providing inspired handmade items and top-notch customer service remains the same.

Our new site officially launches tomorrow, August 1st, and to celebrate we are having a special promotion.  We want everyone to get used to exploring our Etsy shops, so we've devised a little scavenger hunt for you all.  Click on listings throughout each of our shops and find ten with this image in the listing:

Send us an email at universalmama@ymail.com with the links to the ten listings, but midnight PST on August 3rd.  All correct entries will be entered into a random drawing for a $20 gift certificate to any Universal Mama vendor. The winner will be announced on the Universal Mama blog during the week of August 6th.

Happy hunting!