THE BIG ARTS AND CRAFTS SALE!
I and several of my talented friends decided to have a sale. Like a yard sale, but offering Arts and Crafts instead of leftovers and cast-offs. We started out as four people, but I asked the others to pass the word on if they knew anyone who had a craft and thought they might be interested in joining us. Well, as word got around the group grew, and grew. Thankfully I have a large yard, a long driveway, and plenty of street parking! Our street is a dead-end country lane ( in town!) and we only have two neighbors, but I went to each one and told them what we were doing so they wouldn't be alarmed by all the cars, and I gave each one a small painting, and asked them to tell their friends about the sale. Good neighbor relations, right?
I started making up flyers, advertising on Instagram and Facebook and finally put an ad in the paper. I also had each participant send me photos of their work and added those photos to the online ads. Interest was generated online, and started spreading to other towns close by. Nice!
Some of the friends had tents like me, and others had extra six foot tables for display. That's nice for consistency. I had each person bring a tablecloth, a dish of food & drink, and we shared the cost of the newspaper ad. The tables were set up along the edges of my big patio, and the tents lined the driveway. The quality of work was excellent, the people were top notch, and the response was overwhelming! Another nice thing was a couple of of have the SQUARE so we could take credit cards. People spend more that way!
A fun time was had by all and the customers were delighted by the offerings. Everyone sold items and made some money. For myself, I wanted to clear out extra inventory. My house is small with little room for storage and I had extra paintings from the big Art Show, so I set the prices to move that inventory, and people got real bargains from me!
You should consider doing something like this yourself. It's lots of fun to spend time with friends, get to eat some food by other cooks, and make money at the same time! What more can you ask?
I have photos of the flyer and the setups below. Enjoy, and Thanks for looking!!
