How to prep for a pop up shop and craft show!

Hay gurl haaaaay

guess where I am today?

I'm over at Heather's Blog JustLove.Ly talkin' bout how to get yo ass in gear and prep for a craft fair or pop-up shop.

You can see a snippet below! Thank you again heather for having me :)

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Waddup Just Lovely readers! I'm Leonora from Yellow Heart Art. I'm a graphic designer who started Yellow Heart Art back in January of 2011 as a way for me to be my own boss and be 100% creative. Unfortunately at my corporate full time job I don't get to be very creative (there is only so much one can do with slate gray…) My shop is full of quirky typography art, fun plushes and pretty rad-o necklaces.

Heather was super stoked to find out that I was going to be a vendor in Renegade Craft Fair. (if you're unfamiliar with Renegade you guys can get acquainted right over here) She asked if I could write a post about how one prepares for a craft fair. Obviously the answer is apparent here.

you panic.

No, just kidding.

Kinda.

PROCRASTINATION BLOWS
Don't let the months leading up to your craft fair fool you. You might think "eh, its 2 months away, mama's got this". Well, I got news for you. Mama don't got this. The worse thing you can do is put off and procrastinate getting inventory together for your show. I found out I was accepted to Renegade back in May. That meant I had almost 2 and a 1/2 months to prep for the show, and that is exactly what I did. I dedicated at least 5 days a week to slowly prepping and building up my inventory. Which was great for when I ran into hiccups.

((CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL ARTICLE))

Why I've Been so MIA (Renegade Craft Fair!)

((I apologize ahead of time for my ghetto fab photos. I didn't get a chance to take my Renegade ones off of my good camera yet, but hey thats just another blog post to look forward to…right? Right.))

holy cow what an amazeballs weekend.

I have been so MIA lately, and you can blame it on my weekend. Not that I'm complaining, cause if I could I would so Renegade Craft all day erry day.

For those not familiar with Renegade Craft Fair it's not just any "craft fair". There are no little cute grannies making lawn ornaments or doilies. It's a traveling indie craft fair that hits up major cities along the US (Brooklyn, San Diego, LA, Chicago and Austin) I was lucky enough to attend the Brooklyn one this past weekend. There were 300 vendors and you have to apply and be accepted in order to be a part of this fair. I am NOT saying this to be all like "yeah buddy home gurl is da bomb diggity" I'm saying this so you can get how epic this fair is.

I'm going to be sharing tips and tricks on how to prep for a craft fair on this lil lady's blog in a few weeks, so for now I'm just going to tell you about my experience with Renegade.

Holy. Frekkin. Cow.

I absolutely LOVED it. You know what else I love? Lists. So now in no particular order here are some highlights from the event:

• I was frekkin PETRIFIED at first. I would say about 85% of the vendors there have either done craft fairs before or are old Renegade Veterans and knew exactly what to expect. I had no idea what to expect since I have never never EVER sold my goods face to face before. The first half hour was super super weird. People would walk into my booth and check out my stuff and I COULD SEE THEIR FACES. I could see them literally laugh at my quirky print wording or giggle over my pillow pantie plushes. But it was terrifying having people just check out your stuff like they were judging you. I don't mean that in a bad way, but its like "Hi, I'm Leonora, this is me, all of me, do ya dig it?" 

• I had a really awesome booth neighbor. It was this dude named Jay who had done a bagillion and one craft shows. He gave bub and I a ton of advice and even let us borrow some of his supplies that we didn't think we would need. The best part? The whole time I am staring at this Jay guy going "ok, HE LOOKS SO FREKKIN FAMILIAR. Do I follow him on twitter? Am I stalking his blog? Why is everyone taking pictures with him?" Oh, right, thats cause he was Jay McCaroll winner of Project Runway back in the day. For 2 entire days I had no clue who he was, he had lost weight since I saw project runway that I was only able to put 2 and 2 together when I finally googled his ass when I got home. I am so grateful that I got to hang out with sucha talented bro (yeah, I called him Bro, we're kinda tight like that now) (ok, we're not) (but if we were I'd call him Bro) but seriously he was so down to earth and we were shooting the shiz for a few, I hope I get to meet him again someday down the road!

• I had warned Bubs ahead of time that there was a good chance people were going to be calling him bub. And they did. And I laughed. 

• Having people thank ME for giving THEM my product was unreal. Here they were, handing me over my product, giving me their hard earned money, and thanking ME. I was all like "are you joking? Thank YOU for supporting ME" I was totally shocked that brooklyn had such a warm and welcoming crowd. Us New Yorkers can be pretty awesome at times, its rare but it happens ;)

• Not everyone is going to agree with your pricing. I must say out of all the vendors there my booth prices were definitely more towards the lower/reasonable end. My other booth neighbor was selling necklaces for 70-90 bucks just to give ya an idea. There were these 2 girls who came up to my booth, snarked at the fact that my prints were 20 bucks, then came back about a 1/2 hour later and asked if I accepted credit cards so they can buy my prints. (Victory is mine) (fist pound to the chest) (winning) (ok I'm done) 

• I got to network with sooooo many people. Having brooklyn be RIGHT by NYC was a HA-UGE benefit to me. Someone who worked at Etsy had bought one of my necklaces, representatives from Magazines asked if they can contact me down the road to feature me, I have a potential deal with fab.com happening in the works, a producer for ABC News requested a retro TV plush from me…I just can't believe all the exposure I got in those 2 short days.

• Bubs was great during the entire time. At one point he even said "I'll man the booth, go shop around!" I wasn't going to argue with the boy, I'm almost positive there was a Leonora Shaped puff of cloud smoke back in my booth from when I high tailed it out of there so I can finally check out my favorite handmade shops in the flesh. Getting to talk to other graphic artists who do what I do or talk to other handmade shop owners who I totally and completely look up to was so surreal. THESE PEOPLE GET ME. THESE PEOPLE DO WHAT I DO. HOLY COW WHY CAN'T WE ALL LIVE IN SOME AWESOME HANDMADE NEIGHBORHOOD AND BE MODERN AGE HIPPES TOGETHER?! 

 this is what working outside in the heat looks like.

and this was how cute I did look before the humidity got to me. To everyone I met that day I promise I'm not a hot sweaty mess with terrible sun screen streaks all over my nose.

• Ironically the biggest thing I can take away from Renegade Craft fair had absolutely NOTHING to do with my shop, or meeting new people, or getting my name out there. It had to do with Bub. I got to see him from a completely different angle. Don't get me wrong, since day 1 of starting Yellow Heart Art he has 110% been totally supportive of me (he was even my first etsy sale) but the way he was at Renegade was amazing. He woke up super early with me to pack his truck full of tables, chairs, tents, 4 large plastic suitcases, display props, cubby holes, a cooler full of food, a mannequin….in other words a whole lot of shit. Drove me an hour to Brooklyn, unpack the entire truck, carry it to my booth, set up a tent, set up the frame for my "Yellow Heart Art" Banner, set up all the tables, and stay with me for 11 hours both days in the heat, the sun and humidity. He also just didn't sit on the chair next to me like a bump on a log, he was interacting with people, helping me with inventory, keeping track of all my sales, getting super excited for me every time anyone bought anything, kept telling me how proud he was of me, taking pictures of booth and letting everyone on facebook now my progress for the day, taking over the booth so I can use the bathroom or shop around for a bit, snuck out of my booth to surprise me with a son of a sailor necklace that I was eying--I mean really the boy totally surprised me. And if that wasn't enough after only getting a small amount of sleep that past weekend he stayed up with me from 2am till 4am when I had gotten sick from dehydration and lack of food. Even if I didn't make a single sale this past weekend just having Bub do all those things for me and having his face light up with pride was just so fulfilling.

If there is EVER a Renegade Craft Fair remotely close to you YOU NEED TO ATTEND. If you own your own handmade business I strongly encourage you to try to be a vendor, the experience is 110% worth it.

Also sorry about the lack of pics, they are still on my super duper camera and I didn't have a chance yet to take them off, pinky promise you'll see those soon! But for now check out some new inventory that made its cameo at Renegade and is now available in the shop!

Revamped Make Silly Faces in Public by Yellow Heart Art

 Revamped "Make me Melt into Goop" by Yellow Heart Art

Revamped "Awesome Amazing Things" by Yellow Heart Art

Geometric Print by Yellow Heart Art

Friday Faves the Renegade Edition!

Hey Guys! As you all know this blog has been pretty sparse in blog posts due to me gettin' ready for Renegade Craft Fair! 

There will be about 300 vendors, if you're going to be in brooklyn June 23/24 come on over the Booth #59 and give me a "waddup" and a "holla". In case you are unsure who I am just look for the overly pasty girl with the horrible Long Island accent. See Also: Real Housewives of New Jersey or the Jersey Shore for said accent.

It's something of proud of guys, it just happened, ok?

ok, focus Leonora.

I wanted to do a friday faves dedicated to some of my favorite vendors going to this years Renegade! I am SO STOKED to finally get to meet the lovely ladies behind some of these shops. I am going to attempt to leave my military boyfriend in charge of my hippy booth for a hot sec while I frolic and spend money I don't have on things I clearly need from other vendors.

FRIDAY FAVES:

the greatest purses ever made by Made by Hank

um, yeah, these are HANDMADE PURSES. I know, I'm in shock too. Katie Henry makes modern looking purses that are not all foo-foo-girly-girly. The quality is un-freakin-believable. No joke you would think there were commercially made bags. Katie stole my heart way before I even had a shop on etsy myself. I adore her shop and love how it is super raw and original. You go girl.

Geometric Wonderness from Son of a Sailor

I think I love son of a sailor so much because just like made by hank their stuff is all simple, modern, and WITH IT. You don't see too many handmade products like this circulating out there. Made props guys.

Cutesy and Modern goodies from Homako

 so, check it, her stuff was actually sold in anthropologie! She also makes ORIGAMI NECKLACS out of FABRIC. Mind officially blown and exploded to bits.

link up with THIS GIRL

So I get all weird out when I tell people I'm going to be in a craft fair. I feel like craft fairs have gotten a bad rap. People don't associate them with frekkin awesome shizznat like all that stuff above. I pinky promise its cool to be in a fair--promise I'm still cool guys.

anyway, off to sew plush #490,564,056,090....eh, I lost count.

Works in Progress! Sneak Peeks and Preparing for Renegade Craft Fair!

I apologize in advance for my blogging the next month or so. It's going to be filled with a ton of pictures and quick little notes from yours truly. Preparing for renegade craft fair is really eating up a lot of my time.

I wanted to show you guys some sneak peeks of how I am getting ready for my first ever ha-uge craft show! (There are 300 vendors going, pressure much?)

I of course recruited the Bubs to help me with cheap product displays. I am trying so hard to keep costs down (I am not going to even tell you what the booth fee is) so having a crafty little fella in my life is truly a blessing (even if he does take apart any and all electronic devices in our apartment to see how they work)

I told him I wanted cubbies for my plushes. He came up with this idea to have the cubbies at different depths to give it a "quirky" vibe (does he know me or does he know me?)

It's a work in progress but I am so stoked with how amazing it is coming out. The underdog might have a chance here at a ballin' booth.

Also in other news WHAT THE FUDGE is that thing lurking in the background in photo 1?! It looks like death. No, seriously, it looks like the grim reaper is out to get me in my sleep. I didn't take these photos, bubs had texted them to me from the garage so I'm just hoping it's his jacket, at least that is what I keep telling myself.

*shutters*

I also wanted to try and find a way to spruce up my necklaces. This was also super low cost. I bought myself some cello sleeves in bulk, designed the top flap, designed the background, and just printed it all out on my printer. The end result:

and my nails match too! I'm so beast like that.

I also thought it would be fun to introduce completely new designs at the show! So if you're in brooklyn on June 23/24 stop by and check out some completely new inventory. Once my show is over these lovelies will be in stock ;)

One of the prints that are making a cameo at Renegade is my "You make me melt into a big heaping pile of goop" print. Oh hey, the wording sounds familiar? Thats because I actually retired this print from my shop a while back because I wasn't too thrilled with the design but I LOVED the wording. I love its revamp and can not wait for it to make a debut in Yellow Heart Art come June! (But, if you wanna order one before just send me an email, i'll hook a sistah up)

Sorry bout all the watermarking, pinterest is the devil and so much of my stuff is going unsourced and duplicated that its making home gurl wanna go all chuck norris and round house kick somebody hard. real hard.

and the end.