Puces Pop wrap-up

I've spent the last few days relaxing in the wake of Puces Pop, doing things that I haven't really had the chance to do in the last month, such as cleaning the apartment, doing laundry, cooking long, time-intensive dinners (beef bourguignon last night!), and reading Mme Bovary in French. I have a few orders left to do, but nothing is urgent. After two and a half months, I can finally relax.

Puces Pop was my first craft fair in two years, and my first craft fair in Montreal. I met several local artists/designers, including the sweet Bess from English Muffin and Emily from Thumbelina Card Company. As it turns out, Emily has actually been following my work for a while - and I hers - so it was great to finally meet her!

I'm also happy to report that Puces Pop did not follow the trend of my previous craft fairs, in which I only made the fee or a little more than the fee - instead, the sales I made far exceeded my expectations! It also caused me to revise my previous thinking about craft fairs. I believe the following factors directly contributed to my success at Puces Pop:

1. Better display. I'll get a picture up soon, but my husband made a display rack for my cards, which showed them off a lot better than before, and I'm sure it made it easier for customers to choose and pick which ones they liked. (Update: picture is now loaded. I'm half blinking in it, but it is a good picture of the entire display. Oh, the sacrifices to vanity I'll make for my craft!)

2. Specials. I offered a 6 for $20 special on my cards. A lot of people took advantage of this! I also offered deals to people who were interested in 5 or 7 cards.

3. More designs and lines available. Two years ago, I did not have my trusty Silhouette machine to help me cut my cards and therefore could not produce as many as now. I also didn't have as wide a range of designs as I do now. A lot of people gravitated towards my mom's cards, and towards Mitya's postcards. Without these extra helping hands, my sales surely would have been smaller.

It could also be that my cards just appeal more to the tastes of people in Montreal than they did to people in New York (which would also explain why I have roughly the same number of stores in both cities even though I lived in NY for 6 years and Montreal for only 6 months). But in any case, it was a great experience and one that I'm definitely up for again!