I did my fair share of craft fairs for more than a decade, and I learned a lot of tricks along the way. (I even wrote a book about it.)
My craft show tool kit evolved a lot over the years, with a few handy items I couldn’t live without bringing to a craft fair.
Whether you’re preparing for your first craft show and wondering what to bring, or you’re an experienced craft show vet looking to improve your arsenal, I hope you’ll find my top 5 craft show must haves useful.
Watch this video to hear me talk about my craft show must haves, or keep reading:
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1. A great tent!
If you’re planning to do outdoor art markets or festivals, a good craft show tent is an absolute MUST! Many event organizers require everyone to have white 10×10 craft show tents, to keep things looking classy & uniform.
My EZ up tent lasted me through many years of craft shows, and it was worth every penny!
I had the pop-up canopy kind of EZ up tent with four zippered side walls, which are great for closing up shop overnight or keeping out the elements on a rainy day.
2. A professional looking tablecloth!
After years of fussing with big pieces of fabric and homemade tablecloths, pinning and tucking just so to keep it looking nice, I made the move to these fitted polyester tablecloths. They’re so much easier, and they look super professional. They come in a variety of sizes to fit different lengths of folding tables.
You could always screen-print or add appliqués to the front to customize it with your business name or logo!
You can see my own tablecloths pictured below, from my craft show booth at Gretna Heritage Festival:
For my 6 foot tables, I used a pretty standard size plastic folding table I found at a hardware store. These tables are durable, but they can sometimes be heavy and bulky.
I also found that products made for camping worked great for craft shows, as they folded up easily and often didn’t weigh as much. For instance, I also had a lightweight aluminum folding camping table that I used for craft fairs.
3. A comfy & tall chair!
I spent years sitting on low chairs, uncomfortable stools or just standing during craft shows, to stay eye-level with my customers so I could talk to them. My tall fold-up director’s chair became a lifesaver!
The best directors chair for craft shows is one that can put you at the same level as your customers, yet be light-weight, portable and comfortable. It helps you to make a personal connection and sell more than if you’re sitting down low, almost hidden behind a table in a traditional outdoor folding chair.
After years of doing these events, and often times standing all day or sitting perched on an unsupportive folding stool, I started seeing other artists in their booths, sitting on tall directors chairs that were portable and made for outdoor use. After searching high and low around local sporting goods stores with no luck, my search eventually led me to Amazon, where I found this chair and immediately ordered it.
Once I got mine, other artists asked me all the time where I got it. I love this chair and it has lasted me years of pretty serious use and abuse. The heavy-duty aluminum chair frame is NOT physically heavy at all, but it IS super durable. I love that it has side pockets, which are great for storing things in while I’m working behind my booth. (Sometimes I’d use a plastic grocery bag in one of the pockets as a liner for a make-shift trash can on the go.) This chair is definitely on my list of craft show must-haves.
Even if you don’t sell at craft shows, this chair is great for outdoor use at home, not to mention for other outdoor activities like sporting events, or selling at flea markets or garage sales! This is also a great portable director’s chair for makeup artists who may need to bring a chair to locations for their clients to sit on during makeup applications.
4. Shopping bags or gift wrap!
You’ll definitely want to have some sort of shopping bags or gift wrap available!
If you can make sure that your packaging matches your brand, even better!
In this video, I discussed some branding basics with my friend & small business branding expert Holly Marsh of Ecommerce Arcade:
Holly suggests, "Use color as part of your brand identity and try to stick with that. It's okay if not everything matches exactly. For example, if you're trying to buy solid colored tissue paper for your online orders, it's not going to be that exact Pantone color, and that is okay! But if you're using basically the same colors throughout, people will start to associate those colors with your brand."
It's important to create a consistent color palette and visual aesthetic in your craft show booth.
Your color palette should guide your packaging, like shopping bags and tissue paper, as well as how you design your booth display at a craft show.
What size you need depends on what you sell, of course. I usually keep a few sizes on hand – small organza bags for jewelry and some bigger paper shopping bags for larger items.
5. A convenient hand truck or dolly!
Finally, if you’ll be hauling all your stuff to and from your car or truck to your craft show booth, you’re going to want wheels! I cannot begin to tell you how much using a Magliner convertible hand truck changed my craft show life!
I don’t know how I could have done Frenchmen Art Market so many nights without it – I was able to get everything I needed on it in one trip and haul it a couple of blocks back to my car with ease:
It’s pretty high end, but considering all of the physical labor involved in doing craft shows, the Magliner was worth it for me. Your body will thank you!
If you’re a craft show newbie just getting started, I also used a smaller (and cheaper) Magna Cart for shows where it’s easier to do multiple trips back and forth to my car.
You’ll notice from the picture above that I also used a lot of stackable storage bins with latching handles to transport my products to and from the craft fairs. These made it easier to stack everything on my Magliner, and they also protected my inventory, particularly during outdoor craft shows where I might encounter rain or mud.
Bonus craft show ideas:
Okay, so maybe I fibbed. I mayyyy have more than just 5 craft show must haves. Here are a few more of my favorite art show display ideas:
A curtain backdrop for sun protection and visual appeal!
Doing outdoor art markets can take a lot out of you, especially if the sun is hitting your neck all day long. That’s one reason I came up with the curtain backdrop for my art show tent seen below:
I made it by sewing together three semi-sheer curtain panels. On each outside edge, I added a few pieces of ribbon to make it easy to tie off the edges to the sides of my tent poles. At the top of the curtain, I used spring clamps to attach it to the top of my tent. Easy-peasy!
Not only was it great for blocking the sun, but it also provided a colorful and eye-catching background for my booth! (Hint: sew in something at the bottom of the panels to give them a little extra weight so they stay more secure when it gets windy!)
Gridwall for displaying your art!
Many artists use gridwall panels to display their artwork. This type of portable craft show display setup works well for fine artists who have paintings or photographs to show off, but most gridwall systems have other accessories available like clip-on baskets or shelves or hanging racks, which can also show off clothing or accessories too.
Above you can see a photo from one of my own craft show booths. I’m not the artist using the gridwall seen here (that’s the back of the booth next to me), but you can see here how the back of the artwork is attached to the gridwall with clips or zip-ties.
You can also see some of my own display systems here, including a vintage suitcase. I sewed a few ribbons onto the suitcase lining so that I could clip greeting cards to the inside of the suitcase. I also found an old shutter that I turned into a display for earrings.
Stackable jewelry trays became another lifesaver for me. After many craft shows where I'd spend a bunch of time laying out necklaces and jewelry on my table, and then carefully packing each item up again at the end of the show, I discovered the magic of stackable jewelry trays! These made the booth setup and breakdown process so much faster!
I took the above photo at one indoor art show I did. Even though we were inside, the artist used his tent frame to hang these screens from so that he could then attach his artwork.
There are definitely plenty of expensive, professional art display panels out there, but I found this DIY video tutorial that explains how you can make similar art display panels for around $50 per panel using materials found at the hardware store.
Craft show checklist:
While this is by no means a totally comprehensive list of what to take to a craft fair, this should cover most of the important things that you should plan to have on hand, but might otherwise forget to bring with you.
plenty of cash for making change
a way to process credit cards, like Square
safety pins
antibacterial wet wipes and/or hand sanitizer
tape
scissors
calculator
business cards
sunscreen
bug spray aspirin / ibuprofen
a small cooler to hold water or drinks, plus reusable freezer ice packs to keep it cold during summer
a Thermos filled with hot tea or coffee, and hooded blanket for outdoor craft shows during winter
Craft Show Tips for Beginners
Are you just getting started with craft fairs? Lucky for you, I wrote a whole book full of my craft show tips, tricks and advice, full of everything I learned from more than 10 years of doing art markets and craft shows regularly:
If you found this post useful, you should also check out my book, How to Make Money at Craft Shows – Art Market and Craft Fair Tips & Tricks. In it, I cover the basics of getting started selling at craft fairs, as well as how to design a great looking booth, how to give outstanding customer service & sell more, and even how to find and create additional events at which to sell your handmade work.
It also includes how to define your target market, where to find good shows to sell at, how much you should expect to spend on a booth fee at a show, promoting your show & getting your customers there, dealing with crazy weather & unexpected events, theft prevention, how to give great customer service, how to use craft shows to create after-the-show sales and lots more!
Badass Creatives podcast
Listen to Episode 005 of the Badass Creatives podcast to hear me talk about my craft show tool-kit:
What did I miss?
If you’ve been doing craft shows for awhile and think that I missed something here, please contact me and let me know!
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This post was originally published at MissMalaprop.com