Christmas craft fair ideas

[OnTheBottomWithAWomansWeekly]

Hi,
I've been asked to do a stall for the church Christmas charity fair. It's only on for a couple of hours on the last Sunday in November, so I don't need lots of stuff, but I want to have a nice variety.

Going to do the following:

Christmas cookie mix - layer the dry ingredients in a jam jar, print off a sticky label with instructions on what wet ingredients to add and how long to cook. Will cut a square of red/green material and tie over the lid with the opposite colour of ribbon.

Decorations - I've some Cath Kidson birds made in Christmas fabric, also a lot of stuffed hearts.

I've also got some dried lavender and am thinking of making Christmas tree shaped lavender bags (with rice - or wheat if I can get hold of it)

Felt wine bottle covers in the shape of Christmas trees (did these for pressies last year, the pattern is on the Martha Stewart website, they work brilliantly)

Cold porcelain tree ornaments (it's like salt dough only finer, made with school glue, cornflour, babyoil and lemon juice) - going to cut out some stars in white and press rough fabric to each side to give a nice texture, and will write twinkle twinkle on them in silver/gold gel pen. If I can find a heart cutter I'll do the same with joy and love as the messages.

Beaded Christmas tree ornaments in the shape of stars - if I've time I'll do a few with smaller beads as earrings.

Can anyone suggest anything else quick and cheerful? Can't do anything cooked due to health and hygiene rules. Needs to be mostly priced under a fiver as probably most of the customers will be kiddies - or adults caught in the credit crunch like all of us.

All ideas gratefully accepted!

Thanks,
Bottom

[flyoverthegoldenhill]

Bottom did you look on the christmas page at the pintrest boards

[OnTheBottomWithAWomansWeekly]

fly probably where you last saw me!

Think I got the cookie mix idea there.

Got the cold porcelain from Craftgawker.

Have lost days of my life on Pinterest and Craftgawker...must go and finish college assignment before logging on to them again...

[oreocrumbs]

Can you make some childrens aprons? We bought some at a craft fair last christmas. I imagine if you have a sewing machine they are quite quick and simple says the none sewer.

[Scuttlebutter]

I like making tissue holders. V easy if you have a sewing machine and some pretty fabric. Cut out some almost squares - 6.5" x 7" and sew RST leaving just a gap for turning through. Turn through and press, then fold in half to make a crease. From each side bring up each half folded to the middle, just touching. Then sew down both the short sides, turn inside out, and pop a packet of tissues in. Take moments to make and v pretty, useful. Look gorgeous if you have a little wicker basket of them on a table. You can easily ask £1 each for them and they are perfect stocking fillers.

[Scuttlebutter]

Link here, but lots of guides on internet. tissue holders

[flyoverthegoldenhill]

Bottom I just looked at your quilt .......... its lufferly. I was about to suggest a few things I'm too lazy to make, that I could buy at your fair .....but I just saw.............you don't exactly live near me

[3bunnies]

Button christmas trees, snowmen, father christmases? Felt christmas trees?

[stressedHEmum]

For the craft stall at our Christmas Fayre I -

knit little Christmas wreaths, stars and the like for tree hanging
make cones of Snowman soup that looks a bit like this
soup mix layered in a jar, a bit like the cookie mix except with beans, lentils, stock powder, dried veg and herbs, easy recipes can be found on the web

DD makes little origami cones with hanging ribbons and we put wee Christmas sweets like mini candy canes/choc santas inside.

[stressedHEmum]

You could also make -

bath milk/salts
hand/body sugar scrub
flavoured sugar in a nice wee jars
pot pourri

[OnTheBottomWithAWomansWeekly]

Oh some brilliant ideas, thank you all!

Fly no you wouldn't be just popping over for a quick look, not exactly near is right!

I shall put photos of creations up as I make them. I've just joined Pinterest so when I have a creditable Christmas board I'll put a link on that thread.

[flyoverthegoldenhill]

yy to photos

[anja1cam]

I made these Juggling Chooks for a school fete and they went down really well - for jugglers sold in sets of three or also single just as ornaments / toys. I know - not a Christmassy theme though you might be able to adapt with Christmas colours or patterns, or even reindeer noses and antlers? Juggling Turkeys?

www.redtedart.com/2012/02/10/pyramid-juggling-bag-chickens/

With a bit of a production line and painted, not sewn, eyes I was able to run off a pile of 30 in just an evening.

[flyoverthegoldenhill]

anja those chooks are great

[OnTheBottomWithAStringOfTinsel]

Just a quick update as to what sold/didn't sell for anyone doing this in the next few weeks (the fair was yesterday).

Scuttlebutter those tissue holders were great, a good few of those sold

Magic Reindeer Food for ?1 a bag - v popular - dry porridge oats mixed with cheap cake sprinkles, in clear plastic bags with one of these stuck on.

Hand warmers - hearts cut out of fleece, filled with rice and a handful of lavender, ?4 per set of 2 - sold out (heat in microwave for 20 secs). Some I made with Christmas material and lined with fleece.

Christmas Cookie Mix - sold out

Snowman Soup - sold out

Fabric Christmas Decorations - not sold out but I had loads! so quite popular.

Anja I loved the chooks but only had 6 of them, and only 1 sold! I think I needed to have someone who could juggle, playing with a set of them, so that people could see what they could do.

I had cold porcelain decorations (like salt dough) in sets of 3 for ?2 - didn't sell at all! (I think they didn't look 'crafted', and that people maybe thought they were ordered online from China or something!)

My friend had a stall with about 30 scarves she had knitted, lovely soft thin hairy wool, the sort of thing you could wrap round your shoulders in an evening dress, they flew out the door. Also some other winter scarves in unusual bobbly wool, and others in that can-can wool.

Best seller altogether though were woolly hats with ears and a bear face embroidered on them. 9-14 yr old girls were hugely keen on these.

So for next year I'm going to make "bigger" things (I never got round to lavender bags or wine bottle covers this year and I think they'd have gone down well) - better to sell 1 thing for a tenner than ten things for ?1 each.

Still made about ?80 for the parish though, once costs of materials (but not labour!!) were covered.

Thanks a mill for the great ideas (Anja my niece and nephew are getting a set of those chooks as part of their Christmas present!)

[Jojay]

That's really interesting. thank you.

How much did you sell the Cookie mixes, and Snowman Soup for? I'm making a load for our fair!

[FlyOverTheMistletoe]

Glad it went well Bottom after visiting a christmas market yesterday I want to have a go at the cold porcelain decorations

[OnTheBottomWithAStringOfTinsel]

Jojay The cookie mix was ?2 and the snowman soup was ?1 a jar - I used bigger jars for the cookie mix. However as the fair was to raise funds for the parish I was kinda doing it for charity and didn't even cover my costs - if you're out to make a few squid you could go a bit higher.

Make sure your labels are very clear in a big font - or have a nice clear sign - people kept asking me what was in the jars (particularly ladies of a certain age who had to squint!)

Fly the cold porcelain is really satisfying to make and play with! the recipe says 1 cup cornflour to 1 cup glue, but I think I ended up with 2 cups of cornflour - it was completely liquid otherwise.

[BeaWheesht]

Where would I be able to find the cold porcelain recipe? Thanks

[OnTheBottomWithAStringOfTinsel]

cold porcelain tutorial

I kept it in plastic lunch bags with a couple of squirts of babyoil to keep it pliable.

Am trying to upload some piccies but my phone is really slow today!

[BeaWheesht]

Thank you! I'm so in awe of your craft abilities!

[OnTheBottomWithAStringOfTinsel]

All nicked from t'internet!

[BeaWheesht]

Ps is school glue pva? I cornstarch different from corn flour?

[anja1cam]

Wow what a huge effort and WELL DONE what a success! Thanks for the feedback, that's really interesting! Yes the chooks are probably more of a 'summer' thing and I don't think mine had as much competition from other cool stuff as yours

[OnTheBottomWithAStringOfTinsel]

School glue = PVA

Corn starch = corn flour

(Had to google both of these!)

[We3bunniesOfOrientAre]

Did you make holes in the cold porcelain to hang them up? Is is strong enough to support it's weight on the tree. I'm guessing you make the holes before leaving to set. Wondering about making some gingerbread men, as ds loves that story at the moment.