For my second stall, I tried to be a little more prepared - in terms of inventory, and display, both.
In terms of inventory, I tried to stock on some newer kinds of cards and photo albums. I added some more 3D box cards, some shaker cards, and some fashion cards. As for photo albums, I had created some newer projects to feature in my stall - Travel journals, Art journals, Explosion boxes, "Women's Wallet" photo albums, "Burger box" photo albums, and some fun Easter favor boxes, and cards - for the occasion.
To display all this new inventory, I made quite a few purchases and tried to come up with fun display ideas for my items. Baby steps to a gorgeous stall some day! I got a new shabby chic card display stand. Dear hubby helped hammer some nails to add twine on the shelves. This would help the cards stay put. I had a cork board lying around, so I added some jute twine to hang the cards with some cute wooden clothespins. I put a metallic table easel to make my cork board standing comfortably erect on the table. I bought a marble cake board, and a stained plastic glass to make a "center" display. I thought this would be perfect to display all the Easter stuff I had made. I even sat and made price tags for all the items.
On the day of the stall, I had so many butterflies in my stomach. But, this time, at least I knew what to expect. I was better prepared. With newer displays, we took a little longer to figure out where to place what. But here is how it looked in the end. Overall, I was quite happy with it, and exactly how I imagined it!
But the day was SLOW. There were fewer visitors to the market on the whole, and most stalls felt that the number of buyers were much lesser than the number of visitors, hence, fewer sales this time. But we had some friends visit us, and it was great to catch up, and get the encouragement. And, a big thank you and shout out to all who came by, gave me encouragement, and purchased things from my stall!
Anyhow, I had lots of new experiences, and lots of new learning. Items that I sold were mostly my greeting cards, and my Bunny Easter favour boxes this time. I had made some cardboard weights to keep my 3D box cards stable, and they worked like a charm in the Melbourne winds! However, my cork board kept falling off the stand, so I need to stabilize it further - I think two easel stands will do the trick! Also, I think I forgot to stick the cake board to the glass, so that kept topping over every time someone touched it. This time I need to remember to stick it down!
Craft stalls are so much of a learning experience! You just cannot predict how the day is going to turn out. But, I guess that's the thing - You should be prepared for both the scenarios - the good one, and the bad one. Have fun through the day, meet lots of new people, and most of the times, "Gray skies are just clouds passing over"!! :)
