Batty #31

Batty #31 Supplies:

-2x4 cut to 2" wide
-MDF bat
-black glitter
-wire
-nail gun with nails
-paint
-stain

First, cut your 2x4 down to 2" wide.

Next, cut pieces that look like these.

To cut the notch out of the spine of the "3", we first traced where we wanted the notch...

Then, using a band saw we cut the notch out.

Next, assemble the "3" and "1" by nailing the pieces together.

Before you paint, be sure to sand the numbers. Now the "31" is ready to paint.

After the paint is dry, distress the numbers, then rub stain all over the numbers and wipe it off with some paper towel.


How to glitter the bat:

My bat it cut out of thin MDF. First thing you need to do is paint the bat black. While the bat is drying, grab a piece of paper and dump some glitter in a pile in the middle of the paper. Once the bat is dry, paint the front again.

After you paint the front of the bat, immediately stamp it in the glitter.

Before I do the next step, I sprayed the bat with glossy clear coat spray and let it dry. Once it has sat for about ten minutes, I drilled two little holes in the middle of the bat.

Next, cut some wire and thread it through the two holes.

Grab a pencil and wrap the wire around it to make a spiral.

Next, drill a small hole on the top side of the "3".

Stick the end of the wire spiral into the hole.


Here are all the colors I made and sold at my boutique booth:

Happy Halloween!

Craft Show Prep: Booth Set Up

The day finally came for the Simple Treasures Craft Boutique. We gathered all of the booth supplies and product, loaded it on the trailer, drove it into the boutique location, assembled the booth and staged the product. By the end of the night we were all exhausted.

Matt made a frame for the booth out of 2"x2"s. He also built this hefty work table out of 2x4's and plywood. The frame is anchored with screws to this table.

For the walls, I decided to go cheap... tablecloths from Dollar Tree. We stapled them to the 2x2 booth frame. Tape was also involved.

My shop sign has picture hooks on the back and it hung like a picture on two boards screwed to the table.

Booth shot... The cute rug is from Ikea and only cost me $20

Another booth shot...

Here is the purse tree we made with all the owl bags hanging from the branches.

We also made a headboard bench to display my pillows. (Tutorial coming soon)

A good way to drum up more business is to provide business cards for potential buyers. I used a pumpkin basket I had to hold the cards. I made a sign and put it in a cheap Ikea frame.

Product shots...
(Tutorial for #31 coming soon)

Glittered Boo letters (tutorial coming soon)

Another product shot...

Yet again, another product shot...

Pillows galore....

This was a fun experience! I sold a lot of stuff and gained a lot of knowledge. As you can see I have some tutorials coming up, so stay tuned for those!

Craft Show Prep: Booth Sign

For this craft show, I wanted to make sure everyone knows my shop name and my Etsy Shop address. Along with fabric labels, and business cards, Matt designed a banner for my booth. Did you know that Staples.com makes banners for pretty cheap? Well, they do, and luckily we caught the sale they had going on for a vinyl 4'x 2.5' banner. In the end we got the banner with shipping for $20.

Since I wanted the banner framed, we had to find some kind of backer board. At Home Depot we found a sheet of 3'x 7' 1/8" thick backer board for $11.75. Matt cut the backer board to the length we needed.

Next, he cut the frame pieces out of cedar fence slats. We used three boards.

While I was staining the boards, Matt sprayed spray adhesive onto the board and smoothed the banner into place.

Next, after the boards were set in place, Matt stapled the frame to the backer board from the back of the sign.

Then we turned the sign over and Matt stapled it a few more times from the back.

For around $30 we got a huge awesome sign!

It is going to look great in the booth! Only a few more days until the Simple Treasures Craft Boutique... September 18-21.

Craft Show Prep: Purse Tree

For the next few weeks all my blog posts are going to be on preparing for a craft boutique and the craft tutorials on some of the merchandise I am selling at the Simple Treasures Craft Boutique on September 18-21. Hopefully some of my suggestions and pointers will help someone out.

One of the things I am selling at the boutique are these awesome owl totes:

Instead of laying them on a table, I decided I needed something to hang them on. I found a great tutorial for a coat rack on Ana White's website.

Matt built my purse tree out of 2"x 2"'s.

Today, I painted the purse tree turquoise. The next time you see this tree, it will be in my booth with my owl totes hanging from its branches.