It’s on again!! Yep, the Etsy Made In Canada markets have been so well received across the country for the past two years, that they’re at it again! AND less than THREE weeks away! I’m so honored to be one of the chosen vendors in Calgary and thrilled to be apart of the community! {read more}
This spring, I had the immense pleasure of being a vendor at two markets around Alberta! I don’t get to do too many markets & craft shows these days, so doing TWO (on back-to-back weekends) was a pretty big deal for me! There were lots of reasons to be excited, including having actual booths at both markets instead of a single table, and focusing primarily on selling my Love Catcher & Dreamcatcher designs. Today I’m sharing how I tackled my display at the shows.
Annnnd it’s HERE!! This weekend is the first Market Collective Holiday show of the season! Come on down to the Chinese Cultural Centre Friday 4-9pm, and Saturday & Sunday 10am-6pm. There’s a $5 entrance fee for the weekend (kids under 12 get in free) or you can score a THREE weekend pass for only $10 (limited quantities available). Yep, THREE weekends of shopping local, unique, handmade items. This little gal will only be at one of the weekends, so you best come out and say “Hi” this Friday, Saturday or Sunday!
I have a nice variety of Love Catchers waiting for new homes, including a few festive ones to decorate your home for the holidays.
I will also have some adorable stocking stuffer options, including colouful Button Hair Clips & the every popular Button Magnets, both of which I have in holiday colours & limited edition “Frozen” inspired colours. I know, right?! Very pretty, and very awesome.
If you’re looking for a super unique gift, then check out the one-of-a-kind Upcycled Cuff Bracelets in pretty much every colour you can imagine. I will also have the more simple Love Cuff Bracelets available. That my friends, should have you covered for some nice gifts for all the gals in your lives. And then of course, there’s all the other amazing vendors that will be at the show to meet your remaining gift needs. I’ve got a few items to pick up myself. Looking forward to seeing you all down there!
Good news, folks! We survived our Disney vacation and are settling back into things at home (while fighting off icky colds). I’ve got lots to share with you about our trip, but you’ll have to wait a little longer for all that. The BEST part about coming home, was finding an email from the Market Collective gals saying that I was accepted into one of their holiday markets!!! Yay! (insert a happy dance or two)
So SAVE THE DATE!!! December 5-7th you’ll find Bubblegum Sass down at the Chinese Cultural Centre. Of course, each of the three Market Collective weekends will be chalk full of different artists & artisans, so plan on doing a bunch of your Christmas shopping down there!
Before I head out of town, I wanted to give you a little peek at last weekend’s Etsy: Made In Canada market. It was an AMAZING market!! What an incredible feeling to be included in such a successful & well-received show. Calgary is just craving all that handmade goodness! Check out my little post prior to the show.
The line-up to get into Etsy: Made In Canada (and score one of the sweet swag bags) started at 9am, a whole hour before the market even opened! Once the doors were opened, it was a steady stream of people coming through until 4pm!! I kid you not. Things only slowed down a bit in the last hour, but other than that, it was busy, busy, busy. You’ve also got to picture that the weather in Calgary was, well, kind of miserable that day. Down right cold, overcast, light drizzle of rain mixed with the occasional snowflake. Did I mention that half of the vendors were outside, tucked under tents, but still outside? Yep, I was out there too. Layers of comfy sweaters, hot coffee, and lots of lovely customers kept us all warm!
So here’s what my table looked like this time around. I think I’m finally getting there in terms of a more unified display & product style. Years in the making, but it’s coming together. The Love Catchers were quite a hit (although tricky to photograph here). I’m looking forward to making some more… there’s a big box of supplies waiting in the sewing room for when we get back.
Bubblegum Sass was included in a nice feature on the UPPERCASE magazine blog. Some of the gals who helped put on the show have blogged about it too, including Hilda of Handmade Therapy and Lindy of Crafted By Lindy. BIG thanks to the organizers and volunteers who helped pull this wonderful show off! Sounds like Etsy: Made In Canada went really well across Canada. Hopefully, Etsy decides to do it again. For now, I’ve got my fingers crossed on getting into one of the Market Collective Christmas shows in December. Hopefully I’ll have good news about that to share with you soon.
**SAVE THE DATE** This is happening in less than two weeks and I will have the pleasure of being one of the lucky vendors! Etsy: Made in Canada Day is a celebration of all things handmade, vintage, and on Etsy! Made in Canada is a cross Canada event happening on September 27th! Come on out to the Symons Valley Farmers Market in Calgary on September 27th and shop from local artists as well as the regular farmers market vendors! Show runs from 10am – 5pm.
Check out the Facebook page for further event updates. Not in Calgary, but wanna shop for handmade goods? Check out the Etsy: Made in Canada homepage to locate the city nearest you (over twenty cities across Canada are participating)!
Oh, and you are definitely going to want to be at the show at 10am sharp! The first 50 customers to make it through the Etsy doors (located in the bottom level of the market, through the marked doors), will get an awesome swag bag. I’ve been seeing some sneak peek photos on Instagram of the handmade goodies vendors have put together for the swag bags and folks are going to love them! You probably guessed that my contribution involves buttons:
Thought we’d do a little bit of a different Button-spiration this week. I usually end up sharing a tutorial or project of interest by a fellow blogger, but instead I’d like to offer a peek at some of the items I finished up for the Boutique Wedding Market. There’s plenty of button goodness in all of it, of course.
I’ve been spending the last several weeks preparing for the upcoming Boutique Wedding Market here in Calgary. I’ve designed a couple new products for the show, while the rest are slight design variations on my current products. I brought the colours of everything inline with the very popular shabby chic/rustic style wedding decor (dusty purples & pinks, peach, ivory & beige). It’s all a lot more soft than the punchy colours you see in my Etsy shop.
I had already played around quite a bit with the shabby chic style cuff bracelets last year. So I used the inspiration from those and sprinkled it into my button hair clips and the new bridal accessories. The result is a whole lot of pretty in vintage doilies, lace, silks, tulle, yo-yos, and buttons. There’s a lot of hand stitching going into all of this, evenings spent sewing yo-yos & lace flowers while we watch our latest addiction on Netflix. Right now, I’m moving on to putting together the hair clips, and finishing touches on the bridal accessories. In a few days, I’ll be diving into button magnets (all in wedding appropriate colours… don’t you think they would make cute wedding favors?). I’ve also got several display details still to finish up. I’m really tickled with the display I’ve got roughly worked out. It will be quite a change for Bubblegum Sass (I won’t be hiding behind a table for once), but I’m loving the idea!
So here’s a peek into the progress:
Feeling very privileged to be invited to participate as a vendor in Calgary’s newest wedding market! The Boutique Wedding Market will showcase amazing local wedding vendors, designers, & artists specializing in unique, handmade items & services to help you achieve that perfect day! The talent in this show looks stellar! If there’s a wedding coming up in your life, and you long for hand-crafted details & high-quality creativity, this is the show to check out! Can you tell I’m just a bit excited about this new collective of local creative folks?! So here’s a quick preview of who will be at the show (besides little ‘ol me):
Kismet & Clover – Event Styling + Design (co-founder of the show)
by.Ginni – Accessories + Haberdashery (co-founder of the show)
Chris Amat & Mike Seehagel – Photography
Diane + Mike Photography – Photography
Willow & Whimsy – Ethical Floral Arrangements + DIY
Ali Finch – Graphic Design + Invites
Bloom Invites – Boutique Wedding Stationary
Orange Trunk Rentals – Vintage Styling + Rentals
Laura George Designs – Custom Bridal Gowns
City & the Sticks – Reclaimed Wooden Signs
Lannie Rae – Baking + Pastry Arts
Penetration Attempt – Live Music
Admission to the show is FREE! Don’t want to forget to mention that happy fact! There will be some DIY workshops available (which will have a small fee attached to them). The show will be located just a few blocks north of 17th Ave at the old Exes Hair Salon building (1412 1st SW). The show runs Saturday April 26th 10-6 and Sunday April 27th 11-5. I’ll be there all weekend! Did I tell you I’ve been busy whipping up a whole bunch of new shabby chic wedding inspired items just for this show? I’ll give you a peek at the progress later this week. Also, super excited to be offering custom orders! ‘Cause when you’re planning your wedding, you want it to be unique & just-for-you.
Well, it is official… Bubblegum Sass will be joining the long list of talented artisans & designers at the Make It! show in Edmonton this November!! Whoot, whoot! Major happy dance in the sewing room yesterday when I received the news. And this morning, the enormity of the whole thing is becoming a bit more real. I will have to be away for 5 days (I’ve never even spent one night away from Sam yet…) and the show itself is a FULL FOUR days of selling. Two of those days the show is open for 11 hours! But I didn’t let any of that stop me from applying. I know that I can pull this off, with plenty of help from my biggest fans, my family. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pumped to have this opportunity! The space for the show is amazing, the vendors are always inspiring, and the packed aisles of enthusiastic shoppers is incredible! The energy of the entire show is simply put, phenomenal!
What’s the next step in preparation? Sitting down and figuring out just how much stock I need to make (and hopefully sell) to make this show a success in my own eyes. This is likely to be the one and only show I attend this year, so from here on out, I’ll be designing & sewing like a mad woman to make stock. Oh and I need to come up with a new booth design, since the products I’ll be focusing haven’t been sold at any past shows (*insert heart pounding just a bit faster*). Deep breathes, lots of coffee and a hubby who is willing to spend lots of time with his son… Make It! here I come!!!
