They are being held tomorrow from 10am – 1pm Eastern and on September 30 from 8pm – 11pm Eastern.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• Get a complete tour of the Wordpress Dashboard

• Learn the difference between posts and pages.

• Learn How To Use the Visual Editor to create great looking blog posts.

• Learn about categories and tags and how to use them!

• Learn about Plugins

• Learn about Widgets

• Learn about Themes

• Learn about Exporting/Importing and Backups.

• Get Answers to All Of Your Questions!

These sessions are held in a web conference room, so you don’t have to worry about traveling, hiring a sitter, etc. And it’s only $19 – and that is totally worth skipping the headache of trying to learn this yourself!

For more info and to register, click here.

As they say on their website, ” The DIY Street Fair is a free 2-day, 3-night event in Ferndale, Michigan where local artists, crafters, businesses, groups and organizations, musicians, restaurants, brewers and others who live and work with a do-it-yourself  ethic converge for one big celebration. The event showcases the immense creative energy, independent spirit and innovative talent that can be found throughout the area.”

You can check out the music on the main stage (featuring one of my personal favorites, Lucero, as well as some of Michigan’s best, including The Hard Lessons.) The music is free, but don’t forget the self-produced and/or self-released CDs and merch from the acts will also be for sale (so buy some!).

You can get some early holiday shopping done – or buy things for yourself in The Marketplace, which features 80+ local artists, crafters, & entrepreneurs. There is a Beer Garden featuring Michigan crafted beers, as well as Restaurant Row, where local chefs will be cooking all day long. If you have children, you’ll enjoy the family-friendly Kid Zone, featuring musicians and street performers, as well as hands-on projects kids can enjoy.

For more information, vendor list, musical line-up and show times, etc visit them on the web at: http://diystreetfair.com.

Carey Gustafson, who we featured in yesterday’s crafter profile, helped organize the event.  She will be holding down the Handmade Detroit booths with Lish Dorset. Next to them will be the Reware Vintage booth, featuring Beth Nixon, one of our crafty profiles from a couple weeks ago.  I’ll be helping out at the Reware Vintage booth all day Saturday – so if you are in the area, come out and meet all of us!

1. What kind of art or crafts do you make? Most of the crafts and projects I work on for “Glass Action” are more fun than traditional: Night lights, jewelry and tie clips, boxes and picture frames, and custom orders.

2. When did you get started – and when did you realize this could be a business? I got started working in stained glass right out of high school and was a designer and fabricator for many years. It’s a very, very small market in metro-Detroit and suddenly I found my self an unemployed in 2004. Being a homeowner, I knew it was time to convert that basement room and do my own thing!

3. Where do you get inspiration for your projects? Originally it was out of boredom and from what I’d been working on all those previous years- Birds Of Paradise, Grape clusters, tulips and the like. I wanted to make art for people that have outgrown hanging posters in their bedrooms, but will always love pop culture.

4. What do you like best about selling through more traditional venues (craft fairs)? Walking up to a display and seeing that piece of art that grabs you or makes you smile, and the immediate thought of who it would make the perfect gift for. It’s a feeling I love to have and love seeing when a customer approaches my table.

5. Now, what do you like best about selling online? Ugh, it’s a mystery to me! Truthfully, I’ve had way more success through my Myspace page than on esty or ebay. In the latter two I’m a needle in a haystack, and haven’t quite learned how to “work it” correctly! People will write me for quotes and send me ideas through Myspace. Sadly, it’s slowed down a bit, but it’s still the best for directing people to a photo gallery of work (when you don’t have a website up yet).

6. How do you price your work? I base it more on what I think people can afford vs. what it’s worth in labor. I try to make a lot of one design at the same time which cuts the time down. When I make Michigan necklaces for example, I try to cut a million out, then grind them into shape, etc. Making a few at a time slows me down!

7. What has been your biggest struggle with your business? How did you overcome it? I’ve had to train myself to keep track of hours, form a budget, and figure out what I spend on supplies. I want to run Glass Action like a lemon aid stand, but my CPA advised me otherwise!

8. What has been the most rewarding part of your business? Having repeat business, great word of mouth and people really seem to like what I make. Not just the “quality,” but my ideas and designs. That means so much and keeps me inspired!

9. What is something you wish you knew when you were first starting your business? I would have been serious sooner – I wasn’t consistently making and designing as much as I am now. I think I would have a broader range of projects. But there isn’t much i’d change. It’s been so fun year by year working in glass and doing shows!

10. Do you mind sharing a business goal that you hope to accomplish with your business? www.glassactionhq.com is the next big challenge. I have a very talented and patient friend that’s helping me.  And I’m getting into the “wedding” game! I’m designing custom jewelry for brides and bridesmaids, and reception gifts. That’s a direction I’d love to explore more!

File Folders – Definitely not your run-of-the-mill boring, manila folders. These folders from Staples’ M Line are bright and cheery! They make you want to actually file something away.

Business Card Holder – I found this super cute business card holder on Etsy (from Cassylaintotes) I love the orange fabric and retro print!

Altered Clipboards – If you’re looking for something to write on, try these clipboards. I love this lime green leafy one and this coutoure one, which looks like it could have been holding some dressmaker’s sketches!

Skull & Crossbone Push Pins – I like bulletin boards – and these pins from Mostly Magnets [on Etsy] make hanging stuff on them even more fun!

When you submit an article to these sites, you are giving permission for others to post it on their site, for free. As a “thank you,” these site owners will include your author bio and your link. You’d be surprised by how much traffic can come to your site from these articles!

Let’s say that you submit 10 articles and they each get published three times, and that 25 people view each page they’re published on.  That comes out to 750 new people reading your article and possibly clicking on the link to your website. Now, let’s say each of your articles are published 10 times and that 100 people see each page it’s published on…. Well, that’s 10,000 views and possible clicks.

To be effective, keep your articles related to subjects that match your website. Since the person reading the article is already interested in the article’s subject, they’ll be more likely to visit your website if your website’s topic is on key with the article topic.

For example, if you make handmade soap, you could write an article on why organic ingredients are better for your skin or an article on the toxins found in grocery store brand soaps. At the end of the article, your bio will be displayed and the person reading it will see that you make natural soaps and will be so intrigued by your article, they will want to click that link!

Some of my favorites reprint directories include Ezine Articles and Lady Pens.

• Craft Shows - We are heading into a very busy season for craft shows. It’s best to start this process early. Some shows ask potential vendors to apply and there is a selection process that follows. If you area shows do not have a selection process, I still recommend calling and getting all relevant info in advance. You don’t want to wait until the last minute and find out that all the tables are gone! To find upcoming shows, look in your local paper, on community bulletin boards and http://www.indiecraftshows.com/
• Shopping Parties – Take a cue from direct sales and hold your own shopping party! Invite your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, etc. Have your products set out on the table (hint – create a nice display!), have a few appetizers if you want to, and let everyone mingle, shop, and have fun! If you choose, you can ask them to hold a party for you, where they invite their friends, and you give the hostess a certain amount of your product for free…
• Shopping Sites - There are lots of great shopping sites and blogs out there, and getting listed on them can offer you great exposure! Contact the site owner / blogger and ask send them a letter, explaining why you think their audience would be interested in your product. If you have a press release, go ahead and send that, as well as the link to your electronic press kit (if you have one). Some of these people may ask for a sample. Know upfront that you may not get that sample back, so do not send anything you cannot afford to lose!
• Get Social – Get active on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.  Build relationships and establish trust. These people may become your customers – or they may refer you to some!
• Partner Up – Partner up with other business owners and help promote each other! There are many ways to do this, and you are only limited by your creativity. You could mention each other on your blogs, write a review of their product or service and have them review one of your products or services, enclose each other’s business card or other promotional items in your orders, etc.

You can find more holiday tips in Part 2 of this post, which is found on my personal website, by clicking here!

** Don’t forget about getting listed in the Indie Biz Chicks Holiday Gift Guide! Your ad will include a 125×125 graphic and a 50 word description, all for only $35. The guide is filled with articles, recipes, and more! It will be distributed to over 12,000 people through email, and also distributed virally via Facebook and Twitter. Click Here to purchase your listing now.

White it is geared to moms,  anyone who attends will definitely learn a thing or two. There are free webinars all day long,  free gifts through email and special giveaways.

Click Here to register! Remember – it’s all FREE.

1. What kind of art or crafts do you make? My husband and I have a mom and pop shop named Stinkybomb Soap. We have created a line of bath and beauty products that take irony to it’s sudsiest form. Our soaps resemble hand grenades and our cassette tapes appeal to anyone over the age of 10 who remember tape decks. All of our soaps are created by us by casting molds from their real life counterparts, therefore carrying all the detail that the original product contains into our soap. Our beauty products appeal to the ladies but continue our militant theme with products like bath bombs and napalm lip balm, which is vegan friendly. My husband, Rob, makes all the molds and while he is a silent partner, he offers support and continued inspiration.  I manage the day to day operations, handle all the production, marketing and sales.

2. When did you get started – and when did you realize this could be a business? I should state that I have all ways been a crafty minded individual.  My grandmother gave me my first lesson with a sewing machine. I’ve dabbled in candle making, beads, and created a line of plush dolls.  It wasn’t until after the birth of our daughter that the Stinkybomb line came to be. I should also divulge that Rob has a side business where he makes replica knives and grenades out of resin. He had a bunch of old grenade molds lying around the house and I just kept telling him that I thought those molds would make some sweet bars of soap. So with nothing but time, and diapers to change, I went to work sourcing out different soap bases.  Once the recipes came to be, then it became searching out containers and creating labels. As soon as I started telling my friends I knew from their response that we were really going to have a lasting product and brand.

3. Where do you get inspiration for your projects? Our inspiration comes our general interest, Rob’s being military history, mine consisting more of pop culture and movies. A good deal of ideas come from our friends. We saw an artist friend speak the other night about her body of work, she resculpts and transforms plastic baby dolls into sculptures. It immediately gave us the idea of baby doll head soaps. It took less than two days for Rob to come back with a mold ready for soap production.

4. What do you like best about selling through more traditional venues (craft fairs)? First, would be the networking of other crafters and artist. I spend so much time in my work room or behind a computer, I love getting to talk them in person and seeing what they have been creating.  Next, is seeing the look on people faces when they walk by my booth. People either fully embrace our Stinky personality or walk away in disgust. I love engaging with those people in particular. They tend to walk away with a better idea of what this whole indie art movement is all about.

5. Now, what do you like best about selling online? Attempting to work from home while my daughter explores the house.

6. How do you price your work? This is always so hard. I do take a mark up from my cost of supplies. Every item used for the creation of one soap has been measured. From the colorants to the crinkle paper used in our packaging. I then have timed each step of the production process, that includes pouring soap to shipping. All of this factors into the product cost.

7. What has been your biggest struggle with your business? How did you overcome it? My husband plays such an integral part to Stinkybomb but it comes down to him finding time to create new products for the line. I am currently starting to learn more about his process so I can rely less on him and start making my own molds.

8. What has been the most rewarding part of your business? Hearing customer feedback. People love our soaps but are not likely to use them as the shape gets washed away with each use. So when people actually use them regularly and rave about the soap itself, I get warm fuzzies. REALLY PEOPLE: wash, rinse and repeat!

9. What is something you wish you knew when you were first starting your business? It takes time to grow a business, nothing happens over night. Also constantly apply yourself. Oh and relish in the parts of the process you love most.  I guess that was three things.

10. Do you mind sharing a business goal that you hope to accomplish with your business? We hope in a years time to attend a wholesale mart as a vendor. A very scary thought for many reasons but one that could lead to an exciting new place.

Summer Biz Sessions
This summer, we talked to some very savvy women (and one man), covering a lot of interesting topics! If you missed ‘em, don’t worry – we recorded them!

You’ll be hearing from Jennifer Perkins, Jenny Hart, Casie Metcalf, Laura Allen, Claudine Hellmuth, Danny Orendorf (of Renegade Craft) , and myself on topics such as getting a book deal, giving good blog, participating in a large craft, pitching yourself, setting up workshops, balancing your business with your family, creating a sense of community around your business, and more!

Normally priced at $14.95, we’re offering them at 50% off. Click Here To Grab Them Now For Only $7.48

Summer School Package
Are you ready to learn something new? The Summer School Package includes 6 workbooks and audios, covering topics such as:

• Low Cost Advertising
• Creating Your Own Affiliate Program
• Starting Your Own Podcast
• Defining Your Target Market
• Connecting With Your Audience
• Social Networking

Normally priced at $65, Click Here To Grab Them Now For Only $30

- OR – Click Here To Grab BOTH The Summer Biz Sessions & Summer School Courses & Audios For Only $35

This year’s event will be held on November 21 at The Majestic Theater in Detroit.  (of course it’s in Detroit, right?)

Applications are now open and will be accepted through September 11, 2009. If you would like to apply, click here.

Sublime Stitching: Hundreds of Hip Embroidery Patterns and How To by Jenny Hart: Jenny is well-known in the craft world, and there’s a reason for it. Well, there’s a few reasons. She’s talented, business-savvy, and has a great style! If you think embroidery is for old ladies, think again. Jenny’s designs are totally cool. Your friends will love to get some holiday gifts embroidered with these designs. So get crackin’!

The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girl’s Guide to Handmade Jewelry by Jennifer Perkins: Again, this woman is well known in the craft world (hey.. she has had a couple TV shows…). If you’re the kind of person who likes cute, unique jewelry, this book is for you. If you want to wear diamonds and look like you’re a soap opera star, don’t buy it.

Collage Discovery Workshop – Beyond the Unexpected: New Techniques Using Color, Personal Imagery and Creative Surfaces by Claudine Hellmuth: Claudine has a great style – it’s whimsical and really, really cute! Learn how to use your photographs to make some adorable art.

Sharing Your Story: Recording Life’s Details with Mini Books by Ali Edwards: If you’re a scrapbooker, you may be familiar with the author’s monthly column in Creating Keepsakes Magazine. She is a self-described “life artist” – and I must say, I love that term! It doesn’t matter what your art or craft is, you will find inspiration with this woman’s creations. I gaurantee it!

Martha Stewart’s Cookies: The Very Best Treats to Bake and to Share by Martha Stewart: If you’re going to be doing a lot of reading (or crafting), you will need snacks. I suggest cookies. They’re easy to eat, they’re tasty, and, in my opinion, they’re fun to make!

1. What kind of art or crafts do you make? I make things from fabric and pixels. Wow, if I could ever physically combine the two that would be cool! Hmmm…For now I suppose I’ll stick with glitter as the pixel part. But I make accessories that are useful and pretty. I call it fengtual – the merging of function and beauty. This includes cat toys made of good fabric they already destroy such as velvet and sequence.

2. When did you get started – and when did you realize this could be a business? It all ignited after I took a fashion design course at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) here in New York. I was a closet drawer, and sketching out outfits inspired by non-clothing, like lipstick bottles, was really fun for me. Pattern making, however, is not part of my brain, so it became too expensive to think I could launch a clothing line. I’ve always liked making things that work, so I started designing accessories. To make the patterns, I worked with a friend’s sister-in-law who was a seamstress/designer at the time for a store in Brooklyn, and is now a rock star on Etsy.

3. Where do you get inspiration for your projects? From my needs, and the needs of others. I wish I could think more abstractly, but I’m purpose driven, so I get to unleash in creativity with unusual fabric and color combinations, and uses for something very simple that no one thought of before.

4. What do you like best about selling through more traditional venues (craft fairs)? I get to see the personal reaction to my items. It helps me realize if I’ve got a winner or (sadly!) a dud. For my dog treat pouch, an accessory I designed at the request of a dog trainer, I had always thought it would make a nice pocket-purse to just drop in credit cards and a phone and go to the grocery store. So when someone bought it as a binoculars case for her bird watching, and then another woman bought it to hang from her baby stroller for her own little items, that confirmed for me that it could have dual purposes.

5. Now, what do you like best about selling online? I love selling online. I love the freedom it has. I love the challenge of trying to reach people. I love the little email I get when something sells. i love packaging the order! I loved designing my site, and I love the ability to expand on my site whenever I want to. It helps that I designed it myself, so I have a little more freedom there, but…

6. How do you price your work? Well, I look at the price of the materials and labor, first and formost. Currently, a woman in Alabama makes my accessories for me because she’s better at it than I am – plain and simple. But, if I made them myself, I’d still factor my rate in there to pay myself for the time it took to make it. I use high quality fabric that is closeout, meaning, there is no more left of it, and sometimes it is designer fabric. Then I look at the beauty factor, and if it’s unique enough to have higher price. I imagine what I would pay for it in a boutique. My jewelry bag for travel, for instance, gets a lot of nose turns from people online because they want one for $10 that an Amish woman made. This isn’t an Amish jewelry bag. It’s a carefully thought out one with square pockets and secured ring loops for easy access, funky color and fabric combinations with beautiful fabric that you’ll never see anywhere else.

7. What has been your biggest struggle with your business? How did you overcome it? Pattern making, I’d say. I am dependent on someone else to help me make prototypes. I did take a class at FIT to help me in this department, but fitting pieces together that didn’t look like they went together just gave me stomach aches. I am still overcoming it, because I need to find someone I have good synergy with to crank out new inventions. I don’t actively look for this person, however, so it takes a while. So far, I have left it to fate.

8. What has been the most rewarding part of your business? Producing the design, and someone buying it. I love matching all of the trimmings (and by matching, I mean unusual matching), sending them to who will make them, and getting them back in a box full of color. I also love growing my business in different directions. When I launched the website division of my business, Katie James Pixelated, I put up free desktop art and Twitter paper on my site, and the possibilities for where that can go is like a new frontier.

9. What is something you wish you knew when you were fist starting your business? You know what I wish I had? www.Collective-E.com. This is my second business I co-founded with two other hands-on partners, and it’s such an expansive outlet and learning center for business owners of all kinds – indieprepreneurs, craftypreneurs, etc. I’m so function happy, so we built with lots of ways to answer all kinds of needs from getting your own PR to building out your website for SEO, to business development in other areas, so many things. It’s also an online and offline group connector that has proved invaluable to growing my little Katie James in all sorts of directions.

10. Do you mind sharing a business goal that you hope to accomplish with your business? Boy oh boy, where to start! And what secrets to entice you with? I want to really launch Friends of Katie James on my site. I have my first designer on the site – Perry M Tote Bags. She hand draws super detailed designs on canvas totes. Hours of work. I want to transform my blog, www.FashionMista.com into a…blog with more dimension, let’s just say. It’s had many makeovers in my mind, and it’s time to put thought to pixel!

1. Make Some Decisions – You need to decide what the general topic of your show will be. Since you’re reading a craft site, I suspect that it will be somehow crafty… but will it be general? Or do you want to get specific and focus on a particular craft? Will it be a “how-to” type of podcast, or a podcast where you give industry-related news? Will you interview people or will you  just give your opinion?

2. Decide How To Record – You can record yourself for free with a computer microphone headset and the free software Audacity. If you want to record interviews, you can use Skype and the Pamela plugin. I also enjoy Audio Acrobat, because it will host your audio for you on their site. Audio takes up a lot of room and if you have a lot of downloads, you may exceed your bandwith,which means you’ll end up paying your website host extra money. The service also makes it very easy to put your podcast into iTunes.

3. Take Action! The above info is the “basics” – the stuff you need to know to get started. So go for it!

Here are some extra things you may want to take note of… but you don’t need them to get the ball rolling:

• A Theme Song – Create one yourself with royalty free loop music (Google that term and you’ll find lots of websites to peruse), or hire someone to make one for you.
• Custom Graphic – If you put your podcast in iTunes, you’ll probably want to create a custom graphic. This will be displayed along with your podcast and it will help your podcast look more professional. If you’re not gifted with graphics, hire someone to do it for you.
• Flip Video Camera – If you want to venture into the world of video podcasts, I suggest getting a Flip Video Camera. They are easy to use, affordable, and uploading your videos is a snap!

Featuring Beth Nixon of Reware Vintage

2. When did you get started – and when did you realize this could be a business? I’ve always had a fascination with vintage clothing, and with records. For years I would customize my own clothing that I’d found in thrift shops, and people would stop and ask me where I got my outfit…that’s how it all started! My husband and I started building a website to sell vintage clothing and items that I’d put my own touches on. I’d read a book a few months before the website launched that had a couple of projects made from records in it, and I made Christmas presents for our friends with the ideas. Everyone loved them, and I was so hooked with records as a new craft material. I worked for a while on the notebooks and gave them away to a few friends to try it out, and the response was overwhelming. I started getting requests from friends and friends of my friends, and from then on I knew that I would always have a destructive relationship with vinyl.

3. Where do you get inspiration for your projects? I love to learn and try new crafts! I’m also the type of person who focuses on function. I love to look at something that might be junk or trash or just something to look at to the average eye, and try to find a new purpose for it that will make it better or more usable in a way. It’s a puzzle to me, and I just need to figure out what to do and how to do it – the process is the best part for me!

4. What do you like best about selling through more traditional venues (craft fairs)? I love selling at craft fairs to see the response to my items! It’s so great to meet people and see their reactions to what I make, and it is very inspiring. There have been many craft fairs where I have sprouted a totally new idea of something to make based out of a customer’s comment or conversation. It is incredibly rewarding to have that customer interaction from time to time!

5. Now, what do you like best about selling online? Selling online is great because I am able to reach audiences all over the world! I’ve sent items to Japan, Greece, Australia, Great Britain, Mexico, and that would never be possible without my website. I love the idea that someone in Tokyo is using a Michael Jackson record notebook that I made in my home – It’s a pretty amazing concept!

6. How do you price your work? I personally am a very price-conscious consumer, so I price according to what I think is a reasonable cost for the item. I also take into account the time and energy that I put into it, and the cost of my materials. It’s not an exact science for me, and it’s always a battle in my mind!

7. What has been your biggest struggle with your business? How did you overcome it? My biggest struggle is definitely the self-promotion aspect. Having an online store is so different than a brick-and-mortar store. No one is driving past you on the street. You have to create your own opportunities every day, and you have to find the people in the world who are really going to love what you do and make yourself known to them! I work at it every day, and it is a learning experience every day.

8. What has been the most rewarding part of your business? The most rewarding part of my business has been all of the friends that I have made over the years because of a similar interest and passion for the crafting community, especially my fellow members of Handmade Detroit. It really is an amazing, massive, and awe-inspiring network of people and I am so happy to be part of it!

9. What is something you wish you knew when you were fist starting your business? I wish I would have had a DeLorean and a flux capacitor to know that it all worked out later. The first year was difficult for me, and I repeatedly questioned whether or not it was a good idea to quit my job and go for my dream job of working for myself. I knew I had some great ideas, but I wasn’t sure it people would really “get it”. The day of my first craft fair – The Detroit Urban Craft Fair - was the day I knew I had made the right decision, because I almost completely sold of my notebooks, but until then I sometimes doubted my sanity! My advice to anyone starting out is to just be confident in themselves and go for it without fear!

10. Do you mind sharing a business goal that you hope to accomplish with your business? I have so many goals and dreams for my business! This year my goal was to do a few out of state shows, and I’ll be traveling to Cleveland, Ohio in a couple weeks for my first! My main goal is to always keep waking up excited for work, and to live passionately for my work and the friends I’ve made through it every day. Oh, and I want to send Mickey Dolenz a Monkees notebook, because he’s my favorite!

If you’re not familiar with it, SXSW is a HUGE event, held each March in Austin, Texas. There are three parts to the conference – music, film, and the above mentioned “interactive.” I’d really love to be able to head to Austin in March 2010 and provide some awesome Indie Biz Chicks tips in a panel!

The ideas I’ve submitted are:

“Marketing Your Biz Online – Without Going Broke” – you can read more about it and vote for it by clicking here

“How To Give Good Blog” – you can read more about it and vote for it by clicking here

Thank you!!!

• a) super cute
• b) inspirational
• c) can help you with your business
• d) that I think totally rock

So here’s our first “Friday Finds!” – and feel free to leave comments with your own “finds!”

Techy Stuff

Plantronics Headset – In a few days, I’ll be giving you the “Podcast 101″ info you need to start your own podcast. If you are interested in starting one, you’ll need a headset. You can grab this one from Amazon for under $30.

Flip Video Camcorder - If you’d rather create a video podcast or do some vlogging (video blogging), I recommend getting a cute little camcorder like this Flip model. I have one and I used it to create the video for the Ohio Crafty Road Trip. You can pick one up at Amazon for under $130. You can also pick up a little tri-pod for around $5 on ebay, if you want to tape yourself.

Books To Drool Over

The Complete Book of Retro Crafts: Collecting, Displaying & Making Crafts of the Past – I’ll be honest with you. I was browsing Amazon and this book caught my eye. I have not held it in my hands, nor have I looked inside of it. But the cover is cute, and the description says it will show you how to make 40 projects that I’m sure are just kitsch enough to be cool! And you can get it for under $11!

The Big Ass Book Of Crafts – This comes from Mark Montano, the designer from TLC’s While You Were Out. It is HUGE and it is filled with all kinds of projects – from creating art from those annoying subscription cards found in magazines to ideas for cute frames, an ultra-suede iPod case and more! You can pick it up at Amazon for under $14.

For The Caffeine Deprived

I love, love, love Kaladi Brothers Coffee. They are based in Alaska and I went to my local Kaladi’s practically everyday when I lived there. They roast many different blends, but I recommend the Kaladi Blend (I mean, it is their signature blend)!

Free Stuff!

Audacity – Going along with the podcast vibe, this is a audio editor / recorder / mixer. This is what I use to create my podcast! And remember – in a few days, I’ll be giving you those basics, so if you think you’re interested in starting one, definitely download Audacity!

Now, let’s talk about that 1st impression with setting up a booth at a craft fair! We all know the saying, “You never get a 2nd chance to make a good 1st impression”, right? Well, it rings true in selling as well! First of all, if you follow some of these same checklist items as mentioned in the “What to Bring With You” post, you’re already half-way there because you are ORGANIZED. Have your booth set up well in advance before the show begins. That way you are not scrambling at the last minute while customers are now beginning to just walk on by.

Keep your prices clearly marked. Remember my “car sales” approach? Trust me, customers want to see the price immediately and not have to guess what the price would be because some will simply just not inquire.

If possible, you may want to consider making some of your items right in front of the customers. If you are selling jewelry for example, demonstrate the process you go through to make a particular piece. This method can work in many different areas of crafting and others may truly enjoy watching! And just think, you’ll be able to get something done at the same time! But be careful not to ignore the customer while working on your project. Be flexible enough to set it aside to answer questions, visit with the customer, and showcase some of your best-sellers.

Be positive! There is no doubt that you will get some who may come into your booth and you may hear whisperings of comments such as, “Ooh…I bet I could make that myself…” or “That’s nice, but she’s asking WAY too much for it. I could get that cheaper here….” Keeping positive and upbeat will create such a great feeling in that booth and both you and the customer wins when you can maintain a pleasant and courteous demeanor….no matter what. Be a professional- you will always, always get the “nay-sayers” but more often than not, you will find customers who are just excited to be a part of this whole experience and they will appreciate the extra effort you go to in being genuine in your approach to each of them. And smile!

Cover tables with floor-length tablecloths. This makes great storage space for your extra items and keeps the booth area look nice and neat. A solid color works best so it does not distract from your hand-made items. 

Dress professionally. As mentioned before, you are a professional. Wear comfortable shoes. If you have a company name on a shirt or jacket, wear it! If not, just keeping a modest and higher end casual style in your clothing choices will make you feel even more confident and approachable.

*What other tips might you have for making a great 1st impression? What has been you experience in implementing the suggestions mentioned in this post?

For those of you with children in your life: Are your kids crafty? Do they help you make your crafts? Do they sell the items they make?

And feel free to link to pictures of what your children make!

Black Dog Press is offering CraftBoom readers 1/2 off Making Stuff: An Alternative Craft Book and Making Stuff For Kids.  Each one is filled with projects, from how to knit and iPod cover to how to make a purse out of ties to how to make cute toys, backpacks and more!

The books normally retail for #24.95 each, but this is your chance to grab them for less than $12.50 each! But the disscount is only being offered through August 31.

To grab your discount, email Jessica Atkins your name and delivery info to:  jess {at} blackdogonline {dot} com with “CraftBoom Discount” in the subject heading. She’ll take care of the rest for you.