Getting ready for the season's first craft show

It looks like a tiny tornado has cut a path through my living room, scattering paper scraps, books, scissors, thread, rivets everywhere. I'm getting ready for a craft show, of course, and furiously making things as fast as I can. 

The show is the Shoreline Arts Festival, just north of Seattle.

My original goal was to use the fair as an excuse to de-stash -- use up all the odds and ends hiding in the dark corners of my supply cupboard. Like cardboard boxes from old VHS tapes. I'm turning those into blank sketch books. Here's one of my favorites, in progress.

Oooh oooh oooh oooh, stayin' alive, stayin' alive

The last time I went to this fair, domino magnets sold well. They're small and inexpensive -- tempting souvenirs for  fairgoers.  Luckily, I have a stash of magnets already made. 

These groovy illustrations came from a 70s era kids dictionary.

It's hard to sell these online, at least in small sets of 2 or 3. originally I was going to package all these together, along with a magnet board, but the board didn't cooperate.

I've revamped my small bags, which I tried to sell a few years ago at the same fair. Originally, I marketed them as iPhone bags. Everyone thought they were cute, but nobody bought one. Phones go in pockets and don't need separate bags, I discovered. So I added a better closure (wider velcro) and a cute button to each bag. I'll re-introduce them as "wristlets."

I know just enough about marketing to be dangerous.

 (See my earlier description of what went wrong before here, resolution #3.)

Today I'll get out all the custom displays my husband has made for me and start staging my booth (in the garage since it's pouring rain outside). More in the next post...