Craft Fair Prep

First of all I wanted to give an update on the rose oil. It’s doing well; I think it’s progressing as it should. I have been checking on it and giving it a sniff here and there and shaking/stirring it a bit; it has quite a nice aroma that’s not overwhelming so we’ll see how that turns out next week. I have also been continuing with rose experiments because there have been so many that my grandma has brought me. I’ll share my rose beauty experiments in future blog posts.

Ok, this week’s blog has to do with craft fair prep. I can’t believe that it has been a year since our first craft fair experience. We’re going in to two fairs this year; one is at the beginning of November the other is at the end. Once the fairs were done last year, Nicole and I went over them and made a list of things we could improve on. One of the things we needed to work on was how we displayed our cards. This year we did some research and some proper planning now that we have been to craft fairs and have seen other displays. We decided on making shelves or cubbies for our cards to be showcased on. Once we decided on an idea together, Nicole and her mom spent their Saturday creating display boxes and shelves for us and they’re planning on making us more! Nicole is going to share a simple how to about how to create display boxes and shelves to decorate your craft fair tables; hopefully we’ll inspire you to create.

Making Display Boxes

The process is fairly simple and not necessarily exact - depending on how ‘rustic’ you want your box.

You will need:

- Wood (I used leftover pieces of some 6"x1" boards from another project)

- Nails (I used 1 ¼" finishing nails)

- Wood glue

- Hammer

- Measuring Tape/Ruler

- Saw (I used a table saw)

How to:

First you need to determine what size boxes you want. You’ll need to make sure that they’re big enough to hold what you’re displaying…but also not too big! The pieces of board that I had were about 16” long which was the perfect size for a box to fit two of our cards side by side.

Projects like this are usually easier and more fun if you do them with someone else, so I got my mom to help me.

We started with a box that was one board high; this will fit our horizontal cards.

- Chose 3 boards and cut them to the same length. Ours were 17” long and we used a table saw to cut them. These will be the top, bottom, and back of the box. 

- Now it’s time to nail these boards together. First put some wood glue along one of the long edges of board #1, this will be the back of your box. Now lay a board #2 on top, perpendicular to board #1, and nail it in place (this is the bottom of the box). We used three nails, one in each corner and one in the middle. The number of nails you use depends on how long your box is. Now flip the boards around so the bottom is flat on you work surface, and the second edge of the board #1 is facing up. Now repeat the above steps with the board #3, first gluing, and then nailing it in place. This is the top of the box.

- Now all you’re missing are the sides of the box. Use a ruler or measuring tape to determine the dimensions of the sides, and use your saw to cut pieces of board to fit. Put glue on three edges of this board, the top, bottom, and back, then slide it in to place. Nail in place. You will probably want 4 nails; one on the top at the front, one on the bottom at the front and two on the back, top and bottom. Repeat for the other side.

Depending on what kind of wood you used, and what look you’re going for, you may want to paint your box, or use a wood stain to give it a more finished look.

Voila…you have a box!