Webb School -Bell Buckle Craft Show 2012

This was our booth

I thought I would share some of the photos and fun that was happening at the annual Webb School-Bell Buckle Tennessee Craft Show. We were on Maple street which is our spot every year, so hope to see y'all next year.

These pictures were taken early in the morning we had to be there by 6:15 a.m. because they shut off the streets to traffic at 6:30 a.m.

So I decided to walk around before the crowd started coming and take some pictures. Now this show is so BIG that they shut down the whole town ! This is actually like 3 show in one the have the downtown show which is all the stores, theres like 10 stores on one whole block & craft booths set up in front of the stores, then across the street there is 3 more shops & the parking lots are full of craft & food booths and down the street is the fire department and 2 Big antique stores ( love love love going shopping there ) Behind the stores there is part of the downtown show which has about 100 booths, then theres the Webb School Show.

This is across the street from where I am and it's the Webb side of the Bell Buckle show and this is only one small side of it there must be another 200 or more booths set up there.

These two pictures here are taken looking down the street between the Webb craft booths on the right and the Maple street  ( which is where I am at ) on the left side of the street. It seems like there was just as many craft tents on our side of the street also !! Lets just say the whole town was packed  with tents then add all  the people and you can say it was one BIGGGGb craft show !




These are very early customers, both mornings we  got there at 6;15 a.m and the show hours had it starting at 8 a.m. but within a half an hour of unzipping our tent doors on both days we had sold something, it was GREAT !!The weather was Fantastic and the people were in the mood for buying  !!There was sooo many Great handmade crafts , some that made you go Wow, some that made you go Awe , some that made you say I never thought about doing that and some that you said I Have Got To Have That Now !! After hand made is the best !

This is my tent

This was right after the start of the day as all the people were starting to filter in and it started getting pretty crowded

All in all it was a Fantastic weekend, We had a great time and the sales and orders were really good! I sure hope that next year is just as good .

  Well I hope you enjoyed coming along with me for a weekend of crafts in Bell Buckle Tennessee ! If you have never been you need to make it one of your yearly stops. You'll LOVE it !!

                                                              Until the next time !
                        
                                                                      Cheryl
www.etsy.com/shop/inmypaintedgarden

Your Business Logo & Labels - Make Your Own

"Blue Moon Over Tennessee "

Your Logo and your labeling is one or if not the most important components of your business . Your name of your business and your logo that you are going to use should reflect what your business is about.  When coming up with the name for my business I asked myself these questions ( it helps to put it down on paper, seeing it written out really helps. 

 

 1. What is your product ?

    2. What do you do with it ?

      3.Is it just a hobby or do you want to make more  out of it ?

4. How should you market/promote  your product ?

 

Actually I have always loved doing crafts, I started out sewing, I loved to make my boys their cloths, sewed all the time. I used to make those stuffed geese/ducks that sit on the back of your couch or your bed , I made their fancy dresses with the ruffled aprons and the puffy tie bonnets, men's ties, the sock stuffed reindeer and I also crocheted and did macrame. I worked at the elementary school back then and would take my items and put them in the teachers lounge and "yes" the teachers loved to buy, so I did sell a few things. I did do a couple of local craft shows, but felt that what I was making  there really wasn't a big selling market after it was really just a hobby I wanted to show .
   I used to watch the painting programs with my son who would come home from school and sit down and watch ( it just amazed me that he loved those programs and he got me interested) So I bought every book and videos I could find and taught myself how to paint and I'm still learning !  I had saw a women painting on gourds and just thought that was so cool, so I looked up a local gourd farmer and bought a bunch, my brother-in-law decided to take them to work ,sold every one of them and had orders for more thus began  "In My Painted Garden" and that's where my name/logo began !

 

I decided that after years of buying most of my marketing  items online & there are still many items that I do buy online from some Great companies like  www.vistaprint.com and www.moo.com  they both customize any marketing items for your business that you may need and Great deals !

But I wanted to make hanging price tags with my picture logo on them and hanging custom care cards with my logo and care instructions on the flip side to hang on my gourds and my other hand painted items, which I am sooo happy how they turned out that I wish I would have done this a long time ago ! I have a nice scanner and printer so I the the picture that I had already chose as my logo/avatar (that was already downloaded in my picture albums on my computer ) then on word on my computer typed out the care instructions to the size of my logo picture that I had chose  ( it took me a few times to be able to match up the front and back so the care instruction and my logo picture fit on both sides, that way if you have the print on both sides option on your computer it all fits.) I also inserted a text box option for the front side/picture side and added my title of my business ( In My Painted Garden ) Then I took some  white card stock,scanned my logo picture and printed it on the card stock,ran alot of copies. I really liked the way they turned out, so I bought some clear contact paper and covered both sides,cut them out ,punched a hole in them with a hole punch and put a string on them so I could hang them. Then I just made smaller versions with just the logo picture on one side and blank on the other for my price tags.

Here's what they look like on both sides.

Here's to the finished product and I got alot of compliments from my customers at my last show ! This way they have all the information they might need on those little cards and of course I still hand out my business cards and flyer's . This way it makes it a little more personal for my customers and hopefully gives my brand a little personal touch of it's own from me.

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think ?

Thank You for stopping by my blog and Until The Next Time !
   
                                                      Cheryl

www.etsy.com/shop/inmypaintedgarden
www.twitter.com/inmypaintedgard

More Time Please ?

Getting that time of year to get caught up on all my holiday items that I will be putting in my Etsy Shop   - http://www.etsy.com/shop/inmypaintedgarden?ref=si_shop & for my upcoming craft show in October in Bell Buckle Tn.

These are just some of the Halloween gourds that we have been carving and painting up. They all light up, so with each of them that I sell I send along a light and a plug in cord !

Here's what they will look like when they are lit up ! Its only a night light bulb but it sure makes him light right up nice and bright !

Here in the back is where you clip the light in .

I also decided that since I was doing Halloween, that I would make a Halloween House, which as I was trying to figure out what I wanted to put on it, sometimes to much thinking involved on my part . Any way we started cutting out windows and started cutting out the door windows I saw these little door hinges that I used another project sitting there so yep decided to put a moving door. The door opens and shuts, I guess it would make it look more like a house.

What the "Bat Inn" looks like when it's lit up

 

Then I have been wanting to change the color of my bathroom 7 decided to paint it a medium grey and devided it with chair molding painted black (well now the colors in my bathroom are grey black, white, red , my bedroom is a light grey but I think I'm going to match it to the bathroom the colors are so  relaxing  & it's the bathroom off my bedroom!) Anyway I wanted to change my light switch's to match my decor and couldn't find any that I liked. So I use to do decoupage along time ago  &and I had a bunch of plastic light switch's to paint, so I found a pattern that I liked & decoupaged it ! 

And here they are and they match my walls beautiful .

These  are some more that I made . Ya know I just couldn't stop a just mine, usually I don't make anything for me. So I have been busy making alot of them . These are the Child's Pink Paisley set. Great for a little girls room !!

This is another set I did for a boy or girls room I call it the ABC set!

This set is for the baseball child or adult. It would look Fantastic for your little boys room or how about a gift for dad or grandpa ?

I just have so many ideas in my head  and really want to have a variety of  old, new and different items to choose from. I have a bunch of  old windows in the attic and some old wooden chairs, a child's wooden table and 2 chairs that I have been hanging on to for awhile. So I am far from needing items to paint.

Thanks for stopping by !! 

 

Check out my Etsy Shop !

 

Until The Next Time !

Cheryl

As My Garden Grows !!

Hello !! How y'all doing ? This is what my gourd garden looked like August 1st . Just about one month after starting them from seed and  later in the season than I ever should have,  but if we have a winter anything close to last year I may be ok. if not I'll see what if any I do get !

I am just amazed how GREAT that they are doing ! I think after trying since we moved here and last year being my BEST year ever (maybe not in quantity but quality ) I have maybe 10 to 12 seedlings of the martin house & about the same 10 to 12 seedlings of the large bottle gourd.

Just take a walk around with me (well kinda ) but ya know I do have a video camera and I really do need to get it out and start doing snippet's of me painting , of my garden ,my studio and well just about anything.

This year since we have 3 dogs here right now both my sons are staying here with their dogs- big dogs. This is my dog Kaiden on the left & my sons dog Scrappy on the right.(incogneto of course)

This is of course Kaiden and my other sons dog Marley !

Well  I started saying before I decided to introduce you to our dogs, was that this year we decided to move the garden to the outside of the fence towards the back side of the yard because of the dogs. If you remember last year my dog liked my gourds and liked to water them. I had to put a fence around them it helped for awhile until the gourds grew out of that space. Anyway we decided to put them outside the fence and it sure seemed that the gourd plants LOVE it in that spot. As you'll see from the pictures some were taken on August 1st and then again on August 8th

There is really a big difference they are a little more than a quarter of an inch climbing up the

fence.

Then I got up and walked out to see them the morning of the 6th and they were well over half way up the fence and the front ones were starting to had out into the yard.

This picture is of the runners that they send out , they coil up and then grab onto whatever it can and it helps them climb and move around .

This is a picture of what the buds look like and the runners shoot out all over.

My youngest son Chace he helps me out all the time ! Here he is cutting the door out on one of the Halloween house gourds. He likes to jump in and learn. He is usually my right hand man at the craft shows, he helps me set up and tear down and has gone to every show with me and is a good salesman.

I am here at the other end of the room at the table painting on some of my apple gourds.

Well I could go on and on showing you pictures of my gourd garden after all its been a few days and well I have taken more pictures but I'll save those for another gourd garden post. But I will tell you that they are now about 8 to 10 inches above the fence now they are doing FANTASTIC !!

So enjoy every breath you take and every sight you see !!

Until the next time,

Cheryl

www.etsy.com/shop/inmypaintedgarden

www.twitter.com/inmypaintedgard

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