Me and The Fancy Flea

I did it, I can cross it off my Bucket list, I have now officially been a vendor...Yea!

Everything was perfect!  The travel, set up, fellow vendors, customers, take down, and even the weather was perfect.  It was a little warm, but I honestly did not notice under the shade of my tent.

My friends Janice, Stephanie, and I got up at 4:30....That would be am YIKKES and drove the truck around the corner from the hotel, unloaded, and set up our booths

Here's The Polka Dot Closet

Here's my friend Janice's booth

The show opened at 9am with 218 vendors 

This cabinet sold for $95 before the show started, pretty funny, the guy I sold it to asked me if that was my best price.....Ah yea, since the show did not even officially open for 15 minutes!

I was using my little pocket camera, so excuse the pictures

This was my table full of small crafting items

I put my fabric flowers on my dress form.  I made my fabric flowers into pins and added vintage bling to the center and sold them for $10 each

The fabric flower tutorial is Here

The dress form tutorial is Here

Well, this looks a little messy, kind of like after a storm my neighbors ran around my yard and gathered my belongings that were salvageable lol!

I thought my booth looked Ok, of course you wish you had a day to set it up, but since you don't, you do the best you can

Oh CRIPES, I hate pictures of myself, but I know as a blogger people like to know who they are reading so, it is with great reservation that  I publish this picture.

I have to say a HUGE HI to all of my blog readers that stopped by.  I don't in any way want to sound like a pompous butt, I just want you to know I was overwhelmed by your kindness, I had readers that brought me gifts and threw out phrases like, inspiration, love your blog, and you encouraged me to start crafting again.   Here's the deal, in my real life I'm just Carol, the lady that likes to craft, but for 7 hours on April 28, 2012 the second anniversary of my first blog post you made me feel like a "Rock Star" and for that, there is not a Thank You large enough!

Happy Crafting!

Carol

My next post I'll share with you fellow vendors booths, what did and didn't sell, and give you an insight into my experience along with the good, the bad, and if would I do it again........Oh yea, this is a cliff hanger if I ever heard one.

"Smalls" For the Fancy Flea

I'm Heading out for the Fancy Flea at noon today 

My Friend Janice will be here with her truck and trailer at 12 noon, then we will load up and be on our way to the Fancy Flea in Lakeland, Florida.   It's about 1 hour south of Orlando.  Janice is bringing tons of vintage garden and kitchen items and her sister in law Stephanie, will be handling ALLLLLL of the money!  So, I have lots of help.

Since we have to be up VERY early Saturday to set up, we decided to spend the night in Lakeland.  We'll check out where our space will be, have a nice dinner, and I'm thinking a glass of wine before getting to bed early!

Here's some of the small items I'm bringing

I made sure you could see the prices.  Sometimes I find myself turning my computer upside down to see if I can read a price tag on a blog..........No secrets in this Closet!

Water slide decal packs, $18.00 for 3 sheets

Just a sampling of what I'm bringing

I can't wait to meet so many of you!

I'm not going to be able to visit blogs for a few days...So don't be posting anything good LOL!...I hate to be out of the loop.

I'll be back in a couple days with details and pictures.

Happy Creating

Carol

A Bench With Transferred Graphics

I found the perfect bench to transform and added graphics 

I knew this would be a fun transformation and I wanted to do something special with the front panels

After a coat of primer and two coats of Heirloom white paint

I printed a couple graphics from Graphics Fairy and transferred them to the front panels

I used a blender pen for the Transfer.....Graphics Fairy has done a post on every transfer method available including the blender pen so, bookmark THIS Graphics Fairy page...Thank you Karen!

I'm going to sell the bench at the Fancy Flea and it will be the perfect place to display these pillows

I made these two out of vintage barkcloth......I hate to use the good stuff, but geeze I've had the fabric for years....Time to let go!

I found three vintage napkins, not much to do with three, except make a pillow out of two

I priced the bench at $75.00 and the pillows at $25-30-20 (In order of the way they are pictured)

The Fancy Flea is Saturday (My previous post has all of the info) So, I have one more post this week to show you the "Small items" I'm brining to the Flea

There will be over 150 vendors and my friend Janice and I are sharing 2 10X10 spaces.  I am bringing the "Shabby" and Janice is bringing all of the "Rusty" including vintage buckets, boxes, garden and kitchen tools, I'm thinking we will be a good combo.

I, "Miss compulsive" have everything done....OCD!  Thursday I will pull stuff out of piles and make sure everything is priced and await Janice and her trailer (Love a friend with a trailer!) arrival on Friday

Happy Creating!

Carol
I am joining "Share your cup Thursday"

Selling My Wedding Dresses

Crazy lady here ........I've decided to sell SOME of my wedding dresses at the Fancy Flea

My brother was over this week and saw my new blush pink wedding gown hanging out  (Oh, I love it dripping in lace and appliques)  He said "What are you going to do with that" (Boys are sooo stupid!)

I said "This is not the only one I have" and I proceeded to drag out more and more wedding dresses (You should have seen his face, he looked at me like I had grown 2 heads)

We decided it would have been pretty funny if I had died and he went to clean out my closest and found all of these wedding dresses...Don't tell him but, there is more LOL!

OK, maybe it is a little crazy to have a closet full of wedding dresses so, I bought a rolling rack from Walmart for $9.87 and decided to sell some at the Fancy Flea. 

I will be pricing them between $45 and $85.  

I will also be selling a veil I altered.  It was a plain veil and I added some vintage flowers around the crown

I've had some emails wanting more details about the Fancy Flea

Thank you so much....I really appreciate all of your encouragement and well wishes in being a first time vendor 

I have just over a week until the Flea and 2 more posts to show you the rest of the goodies I'm bringing

Happy Creating!

Carol

Fancy Stools and the Naturalizer Shoe Winner

I'm having fun getting merchandise ready for the Fancy Flea in Lakeland Florida.

I've always wanted to be a vendor at a show, it's been on my bucket list for a long time and I'm finally going to do it!!   It's 11 days away! 

Here's a couple stools that are anxiously awaiting the Flea

I painted these stools in heirloom white then after a little sanding I added a water slide decal And Graphic from Graphics Fairy...I added the rose to the graphic

I always finish my furniture with 2-3 coats of Minwax wipe on polyacrylic from Home Depot

I will price the little stool at $28 and the large stool at $34
These water slide decals are available at The Polka Dot Closet


Thank you to everyone who took the time to enter!

Oh, Look what I made to wear at the Fancy Flea

Oh Ya, I'll be styling.....Or looking silly!

Happy creating!

Carol

Easy Sign Painting Tool!

I made a sign for my space at the Fancy Flea and here's the easy tool I used to make it

This is not a sponsored post I just wanted to share with you a really neat, inexpensive tool I used

Introducing the EZ Tracer Projector

Now, this method is not new, people have been using overhead projectors forever, but who can afford them!  

The EZ Tracer is $18.00 in store at Hobby Lobby!  Here's how it breaks down, the price is $29.99 but, you can print a 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby online.  So, for $18.00 anyone can be a sign or mural painter!  Oh, and it uses a regular light bulb, no expensive projector bulbs

I needed a sign for my space at the Fancy Flea and I tossed around a lot of ideas in my head before I spotted this sign at the thrift store for $8.00......Now how lucky can a girl get!

I had a piece of wood thin enough to slide right in!  I left the wood long enough to stick out the top and cut curves in the top with my jigsaw and made a plaster applique...  

...Tutorial HERE

I wanted the sign to look like my blog header so, I painted the center pink and then taped off the outside for the brown paint 

Now I brought out my EZ Tracer.  The beauty of this projector is that you do not have to be a graphic artist!  Just type the words and print them out onto regular paper.  The printed words go under the projector.  Now, shut off the lights and project the words onto your board.   If you want the words larger move the projector farther away, smaller, move it closer.  That's it, nothing complicated.

Here is the small words I projected onto my board and then shut off the room lights and traced around the projected words.

I used a paint pen to fill the letters in, but you could use a sharpie or if you don't drink coffee, you could paint with a small brush and acrylic craft paint.

So, there you have it, my new toy.

For perfect polka dots I use these round stencil brushes

Now you can find me at the Fancy Flea April 28th in Lakeland, Florida

Be sure to enter my giveaway for a free pair of Naturalizer shoes, the winner will be announced on Monday 

Happy Creating!

Carol