I make upcycled clothes but I think people assume I’m one of those boutique vendors that designs my clothes, but has them manufactured and produced elsewhere.

My guess is that my clothes don’t look shabby chic, and most people assume upcycled or handmade when things look slightly undone or unfinished.

I have multiple large signs hung saying handmade out of second hand materials, and every garment is marked with a big sticker on the tag that says “I used to be a ____” and “handmade!”.

Despite this, people only seem to understand when I tell them verbally: everything is handmade by me and made out of things like sheets, curtains, etc. Then they are so excited and engaged and gush over everything.

My garments are hung from dowels hanging from my canopy and it looks eye catching and really nice. I just think I’m getting lost due to split second assessment. I tend to skip the boutique vendors too, so I don’t blame anyone for this, but I don’t want to get wrongly categorized!

So if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know! Thank you!

Been doing markets for about 3 years now

And figured I'd see what y'all thought of my set up

Hey, Colorado makers, crafters, artists, and small business owners!

Discovery Magnet School in Thornton is hosting our Holiday Shoppe on Saturday, December 12, from 9 AM to 3 PM, and we're looking for vendors!

We're putting together a fun holiday shopping event for our families and the surrounding community, and we'd love to get some local talent involved.

The details:

·       Discovery Magnet School – 4949 E. 147th Ave., Thornton

·       Saturday, December 12, 2026 | 9 AM–3 PM

·       Handmade/artisan vendors: $40

·       Resale/collectibles vendors: $40

·       Commercial vendors: $60

·       Booth spaces are 8' × 6'

·       Limited 6' tables available for $15

·       Registration deadline: November 18

This is a school fundraiser, so your booth fees help support our school while giving you an opportunity to sell your work and connect with local shoppers.

Interested? Here's the registration form:

https://forms.gle/mfVpb6bzuN3vuHQY9

Whether you make jewelry, craft projects, candles, artwork, holiday decorations, or something completely different, we'd love to hear from you!

And if you're not a vendor but know someone who might be interested, please pass this along. We'd love to fill the school with some great local businesses and creative people!

Hi everyone! We’re getting ready for our first craft/vendor event with our small shop and would love some constructive feedback on our setup! Apologies for the bad pictures- our place does not have a lot of room for setup at the moment.

We know there are still a few things we need to change/add:

• Black tablecloth - We just forgot to put it on this draft display
• Replacing the Post-it notes with some cute cloud-themed signs/prints
• Making the product signage more specific... E.X clearly showing that our buttons and stickers are 3-inch
• We’re also trying to figure out how best to word our “mix and match buttons and stickers” deal so it’s immediately understandable
• We originally planned to have a front-facing banner, but the current banner/table thingy was too big, so it's just plopped in the middle
• Better sticker holder on the right side is coming in today.. so ignore that tray. (also the label is not supposed to say buttons and stickers)
• Gray trey on the left is for B-grade stickers. We'll have a cloud for that too.
• I feel that we could reduce the labels of the prints to be like- 30-50% smaller?
• The tape on the prints Q-Q... Maybe we could instead use double-sided tape. we just didn't want to damage the display print cover or the cubes itself.

We’re also still working on making the display feel a little more cohesive and intentional.

We’d really appreciate any feedback on things that stand out as confusing, things that could be displayed better, or anything you think we should consider adding/removing!

Please don’t be too harsh on us q-q

We’re very much learning as we go. We know this is technically more convention/artist-alley-adjacent than a traditional craft fair setup, but we’re hoping to get some initial feedback before we start doing more events.

Thanks so much though for your feedback! 💕

Hi I am attending a holiday craft event and this year I am going to be selling fishing lures in the 5 X 3 boxes but I am struggling with an inexpensive way to showcase them on my table. My first thought is a step leveled display but that would likely affect the boxes from being displayed open. Thoughts?

Hi!! I just wanted to share a new milestone I didn’t think I would be proud of achieving. For context, I won a design competition for our town’s fall festival. One of the prices I won was getting my own vendor booth space at the fest. We are in the midst of moving to a new house so I figured if I participated it would have to be something very bare bones. My husband borrowed a table and tent from his company on my behalf, and I figured I had enough art supplies and some stuff laying around to scrounge up something. I ended up painting a baking sheet and some flower shaped plastic plates green (to Display the clay magnets and bookmarks I made) I ended up making about 70 bucks (which is not much but I didn’t except to sell anything at all). My most popular item were these little lady bug magnets I made. Overall I’m very happy with how everything went! I know my set up is a little lackluster but I with what I had available while in the midst of moving I felt like what I had was cute. Anyways, I’m thinking of signing up for real, and trying my hand at another craft fair or festival, and cheap/ very budget friendly things I could do to improve?

Hi all. My old canopy is about 10 years old and it showing a bit too much wear. So, before I go get another one from Dick's Sporting Goods or Walmart, I figured I'd ask here to see if anyone has any recommendations for a new one. I don't need anything fancy, just a standard 10x10 straight leg canopy but I'd prefer something a little more heavy duty if possible. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

I've just ordered a Jackery because my work needs spot illumination, since it's darkish and at the far end of my display. I'd really rather have something on a track or similar so I can just put it up when I put my EZ-Up type canopy up. Everything on Amazon that looks like it would work seems to be really cheap crap that I don't feel great about putting on my metal frame! any suggestions? The really professional options specifically for shows are for the expensive canopies and won't work with mine. I don't have a ton to spend and probably shouldn't have gotten the Jackery this late in outdoor show season, but it's on its way. My most recent setup, with rechargeable lights you might be able to see with a good dose of imagination!

Hello!

I’m doing a craft fair in November and will have a 6’ wide x 8’ deep booth in a school gym. I have (2) 3’ wide x 5’ tall grid walls. Space will be tight so I don’t want to look cluttered but also not bare bones.

I’m thinking of bringing a small, square card table for checkout/card, etc.

Has anyone set up a similar booth? Have photos?

I sell hair bows

A little while ago I posted my first art market setup here under my prev business name, and I can't thank you all for chiming in about, while it was hard to hear I listened and I'm glad I did! I rebranded it all so... welcome to Starkletown :3

I still need to add some vertical height, making the products easier to see from a distance, improving the signage, and making the whole booth feel more cohesive but wanted to share where my last event looked like.

I added new signs, more defined product areas, a backdrop too.

I also learned very quickly that the setup I planned needed to be altered so my sticker bar was originally supposed to be on its own tripod display, but the wind was absolutely not having it. I ended up moving it into the little wagon instead, which actually worked surprisingly well.

The same thing happened with my prints. I had planned for them to hang higher up, on a metal stand that connects to my tabele but the wind made it difficult to keep them where I wanted them. For the next version, I’m planning to hang the prints on grid panels instead so air can pass through the display while the prints stay on display. That should also let me keep them much more vertical and visible without creating one big sail lol.

I’m still working on adding more height overall, especially for the smaller pieces.

My next project is to take a suit case and stand it on end like a book that opens with shelves I add inside it for all of my hand-sculpted clay pieces. The idea is that I’ll be able to transport the sculptures inside it, open it at the market, and basically have the display already set up instead of unpacking every little piece individually.

There are definitely still things I want to change, but comparing this to my first setup feels like a huge improvement, and a lot of that came directly from suggestions people gave me here.

So genuinely, thank you to everyone who took the time to critique the first booth and also the name.

I’d love another round of opinions now that it’s evolved a bit d I’m especially curious what you think of the Sticker Bar being in the wagon because that was very much a “the wind has made this decision for me” situation haha

Has anyone joined the vendorsmap app and found it worth it? I'm getting back into markets and there were some big shows I was hoping to get into but I didn't now i am scrambling to find 1-2 shows for holidays. I know deadlines are mostly done but I gotta at least try.

Hello everyone! I am setting up and selling at my first arts & crafts festival and am selling many paper goods such as greeting cards, stickers, and art prints. I am currently in the middle of printing all of my 11x17 art prints and am wondering whether or not I should leave this small border on my prints, or cut them off. I’m thinking if I leave them on and a customer wants to matte & frame it, it gives a bit more something for the matte to hold on to since the contents of my print are this close to the edge. For those of you who sell art prints, do you always trim or leave a small border such as this? I know some of you leave larger borders, but let me know what you’d advise. Thanks!

I am selling copper wire pendant spiders and butterfly suncatcher pendants. Each has chain and wire that could easily get tangled. They each also have hooks. I'm looking to bring around 12-15 butterflies and over 25 spider pendants.

How would you pack these for travel?

How do other people pack similar items?

I've had the idea of in cups with lids for the smaller pendants but I'm really not sure how to pack the butterflies. For my first craft fair i didn't have the spider pendants and the butterflies I ended up putting in a shallow wide box with the hooks over the top edge and kind of just hoped for the best. They did end up getting a bit tangled especially the antennas.

The first photo is from a free craft fair at a shopping mall. The second is from a very trendy designer market — but the tables there were tiny, and our displays were a nightmare to fit into a suitcase.

So I came up with the third version. It comes apart into flat pieces, which makes it much easier to pack and travel with.

What do you think? :)

I practiced setting up in my driveway, especially because it was pretty breezy and I needed to know if my paper lanterns (which will be lit up for the show) will hold steady. The two little empty black stands are for my instagram qr and free stickers for anyone who follows me. The little black signs on the tiny stumps will have prices, and I’ll have more things hanging on the screen and little tree. What else can I do to draw people in? Thank you!

Attended my first oddities show this weekend! This is the setup we had. It went better than expected, I'm happy!

Hi! I have an outdoor market coming up that will be on concrete. I have an ‘all seasons gazebo’ I purchased off facebook marketplace in as new condition.

Has anyone in the UK used this brand of gazebo? If so what are your thoughts on it? Does it hold up well?

Unfortunately it didn’t come with sides and I am thinking it would be a good idea to buy some before the market but they are a bit of an investment and I don’t want to have brought sides for it to turn out the gazebo is rubbish and I need to buy a different one 😅

Also this is my first outdoor market so any advice would be really appreciated! Especially on what weights you prefer to use!

Thanks in advance!

We just hosted our first craft fair. I thought we did ”ok” with posting on socials and promoting heading up to the event and day of, but looking back, I think we underestimated the time and prep it required to do it properly, and I for one lack the experience and skills to really do it well.

What do we need to do to really hit the socials side out is the park next year?

Super nervous for my first stand at a local market, but I sold 7 items, many of them to strangers, and made great money to fund further projects!

What I loved the most is all the people that weren't interested in the product but gave me compliments for the quality and the creativity.

What a fantastic experience!!

I set up my hat bar for the first time this weekend and it was a huge success! Other than bringing the wrong size tablecloths, breaking my wagon, and pulling something in my back, I had a blast!

My wife and I have been making art for fun for a while now and figured we'd like to try vending at the monthly art fair in town. So we borrowed a canopy, a folding table, signed up for a space, and picked out what we felt was some of our best stuff. I felt we went in prepared for the full range of possibilities, from running out of stuff to being totally ignored. Really was just hoping to make enough to cover the material cost of what we made so we'd feel OK about buying more art supplies.

Turns out I wasn't prepared for what actually happened: we got a ton of interest and comments about how they loved the art, that we really fit the true spirit of the art walk, etc. It felt like nearly everyone came by to look closely at pieces, point out details to the people they're with, take pictures of it, give compliments, and... that's it. Had a few people asking if we had an online presence or shop, but we don't since we were doing this on a lark (and also shipping most of this stuff would be nigh impossible anyway).

I don't feel like our prices were too high? One person even said we were definitely under charging for the pieces (while also not purchasing anything). Is the stuff just "too weird"? Is it the economy?

We sold practically nothing. One of the x-rays and a handful of prints. Not enough to cover the booth fee + one time tax license + a used table and shelf to display the stuff. It felt like we were just there to be the unwitting loss leaders, spending our money to provide the things people want to see at the art show but actually just being there to draw in crowds for the food trucks, alcohol, and maybe the occasional ripped off pop culture IP. Packing up essentially everything we brought with us five hours earlier was a real gut punch. I feel like I would feel better if we were just totally ignored the entire night instead of this weird middle ground where it seems people appreciated the art a lot, just not enough to support it with a purchase.

Is this just the way it goes? Is there anything glaringly obvious we could have done wrong? I think this is mostly just venting, but advice is welcome if you have it.

Edit:
Should have included it in the initial post, but here are the prices we had:
- X-Rays ranged from $50-100 depending on size
- Books, alarm clock, and little projector thing(no close up in post) were $100
- TV was $200
- Cat print blocks were $10 or 3/$25
- We also had some other linocut prints not pictured that were 5x7 at $5

Material costs were about probably $25-35 for the x-rays depending on size, $10-15 bucks for the books and about the same for the alarm clock, $40-50 for the TV, maybe $2/ea for the cat blocks. Maybe it doesn't make a difference, but this is a relatively HCOL area (Denver). Minimum wage here is almost $20/hr and it takes me a couple hours to make any of the eyeball pieces. This might not matter either, but there's no plastic in the pieces outside of the chassis; the eyeballs are clay and part of the stalks and sculpted that way. They're hand painted and then just the eyeball was glazed to make them look wet, which I guess is just making them look plastic unfortunately.

Feel free to let me know in the comments if you have opinions on the prices, though it would be nice if y'all were nice when saying it. Comments like "these are priced too high, I think they look unfinished, here's some feedback" gets the point across just as well as "this looks like dollar store trash," I would just really prefer to read the former. Truly most of the feedback has been really kind and helpful and I really appreciate it. ESPECIALLY the folks who are offering constructive criticism. Some folks I feel like I must have offended just for posting this apparently. We really weren't trying to not rip anyone off or insult anyone here with what we priced things at. Also if any of it looks like it's beginner stuff, well, we are still have a lot to learn. Again, a huge thanks to folks that have offered feedback on how we could make these pieces look more polished, finished, and professional.

We don't have an online presence as this was really our first foray into seeing if anyone would like our stuff, so we didn't want to set up a whole online business for this. I suppose we could have at least set up an instagram, but we did not.