How To : Make gift bags for a craft fair

I thought I'd give you all a break from my hat addiction and share with you how I made the goodie bags that I gave to all my customers in December last year, both at the Bazaar Bizarre Holiday Fair in December, and also orders I received online from my Etsy Shop. Here's what the finished goodie bag looked like. (Please forgive my photos, as I took them the night before the fair. The lighting is not too good.)

These goodie bags are very simple to put together, so you can be like me and make them the night before your 2-day craft fair and go to bed at 3am for a 6am call time (So fun! I would totally recommend it!...NOT :P), gather some friends together for a goodie-bag party, or make it a fun family activity. Either way, making the bags themselves is easy. It's making so many bags that takes time.

Here's what you need for your own set of goodie bags. Feel free to substitute your preferred goodies. It was Christmas, so I thought Chai tea and chocolate would give people warm thoughts, as they enjoyed my chunky handknits. :)

What You need

• Lime Green Organza bag, 4x6 (got mine from Papermart)
• Hang tags (From a local San Jose Etsy maker, The Paper Medley)
• Your business cards (I put 2 in each goodie bag. My cards are from Moo.com. Love them!)
• Goodies 1 (I got the Ghirardelli Chocolate Holiday Assortment pack from Costco)
• Goodies 2 (Good Earth Decaf Chai teabags)

TL:DR Instructions

Add your goodies 1 and 2, along with 1 or 2 business cards to the organza bag, tie the bag shut, and finish off with the hang tags. As an extra, I added a discount code to the back of the hangtags. :)

The Long version (with gratuitous use of photos, because...you know...I have lots of them)

The bags....

...and the tags (I love these tags!).

...but don't forget your cards!

And the tea...

...plus Ghirardelli (I'm so sorry for the rhymes...it's a late-night inspired thing that I can't seem to shake off).

Now for the haaaaarrrrdddd work! Add the 2 chocolate pieces and one tea bag to the goodie bag.

When that's done, take some extra photos just for fun.

 

Then add your pretty business cards, because you want your lovely customers to remember you when they're sipping on their tea, and munching on those delicious chocolate squares.

Now finish this up with your lovely hang tags, and you're good to go! Lots and lots of goodie bags for all!

Hope you enjoyed this long tutorial. See you next week!

Studio Re-organization: The After photos

I know I promised these photos a while back, but I got all excited about the giveaway and the birthday sale that I'm now getting around to it. Are you ready for them? Well here we go! Here's the before - my yarn corner, and the study in general. In dire need of some serious TLC!

Then during the cleaning and re-organization process:

And now the after!!

My little yarn corner (aka "studio") of the study, all cleaned up!

I "repurposed" one of our old bookcases for my bulky and superbulky yarns. (I donated most of the books we had, and moved all the other ones into the Expedit bookcase, making sure they all fit! Yay! More space for my yarn!)

I moved one of the 4-cubby IKEA Expedit bookcases to the poopoola's room, and kept this one to store my blocking equipment, notions, recently finished projects (in the top left cubby), and paperwork (in the green box shoved in the bottom left cubby). On top I have my trusty body form, buttons, ribbons, business cards and a photo book.

Pretty Ribbons and Buttons

Here's a trusty zip bag (that held one of our comforters) that now works as a holding area for projects that are in "the queue" i.e., ready to be worked on as soon as I'm done with the 5 currently on my needles! Teeheehee...

My knitting books, printed patterns, and folders hang out here. So do my yarn ball winder, and the tissue I use for wrapping my items before shipping.

To the right of my knitting books, we have my needle and equipment carrying cases, paper bags all ready for my next craft fair, and a Pampers holding box (re-use and recycle, right?) for projects that are in line to be frogged. Wedged in that little corner is a box full of my pattern swatches, a folder and clipboard, and my old trusty plastic mannequin.

On top of the new bulky yarn case is a sign I found at Ross (I think), and a jar I got at Goodwill. I filled the jar with pompoms and leftover yarn pieces, then stuck some of the straight needles I received from a friend when I was in the UK. Looks all quaint and cute, right?

 

And a grainy photo of how it looks together!

I hope you enjoyed photos of the re-organized "studio". Knowing how I roll, this arrangement will change again very soon! :)

Have a great week everyone, and hope you are getting ready for fall weather! I know I am, and I've got quite a few new lovelies for all of you!