Last night, Wednesday 11/30, she had a very informative segment on “Made In America” — and how there is a very big PUSH now on folks buying American made items for Christmas gifts.  She made a comment that if EVERY family would just buy $64 worth of “Made In America” products for Christmas gifts, that alone would help put thousands of people back to work.  They showed a variety of “made in America” businesses – from hot sauce, to toys and games, to clothing items – indicating that if MORE Americans would buy American made products, how much benefit there would be to our economy!

Do YOU have signs that you can hang on your craft fair/bazaar booth that proudly state that your items are MADE IN AMERICA?  Put some signs in your customer waiting area indicating that you’re all about the “made in America” push!

All of our items that we sell, from coupon clutches, to Plus Size childrens patterns, to Full Figure men/women’s books and patterns,  to Sewing Machine Repair books are ALL made right HERE in America!!  Check your Christmas gift list to see if any of these “Made in America” products would be a great idea for you.

Let your customers know that what you offer are also “Made in America” products —then remember the final words on the segment by Diane Sawyer — “Are YOU in?”    We certainly are and we are doing our best to spend, not just $64, but all we can on made in America products for under our Christmas tree this year!!

The actual “sale” began today (Thursday) at 10:00 for those people who wanted to get in early and pay $1.00 entrance fee (the $1.00 was for a particular charity).  I was there at 9:30 just to see how many people were in line already waiting to get in —- here’s a picture of part of the line:

At 9:30 there were approximately 87 people already in line waiting for the doors to open at 10:00!  I’d driven by the fairgrounds a little after 9 heading for the Post Office, and there were already probably a dozen people standing around the door at that time.

Why would sewers and crafters go to a kids’ resale consignment affair?  This is where I get LOTS of great deals on clothing items that I can make into craft items for craft fairs, bazaars, etc.  You can find jeans for those jean purses for about a buck a pair, plus blouses, shorts and other items that can be made into craft items.  I also look for sheets and pillow cases, as the fabric from the sheets/pillow cases can be used for dozens of things.   At a previous kids consignment sale I found a really nice girls skort – had pink checked shorts under a khaki skirt, that I’m using for a project tutorial for this blog in a few days.  I’ve even found small bags of jewelry findings that I’ve re-used for various projects.

Check around in your local areas for consignment sales such as this – I guarantee that you’ll find many things CHEAP that you can use for your own sewing/crafting projects without spending big dollars at the fabric stores.  You’ll be helping the consignors make a few dollars in addition to saving yourself some money.

Subscribe to the FaveCrafts Quick and Crafty email newsletter for free and receive the Homemade Christmas Gift Guide eBook as a welcome gift.  Grab the Santa’s Guide to Easy Christmas Crafts for Kids ebook while you’re at it.

Get TWO FREE Halloween Crafts eBooks:

• Easy Halloween Crafts 2010 Edition 2010 eBook features 7 easy Halloween crafts to wear, decorate or give away, including the Pirate Pumpkin (pg. 5) and the DIY Spider Webs (pg. 17).
• Homemade Halloween Decorations 2010 Edition eBook features 7 homemade Halloween decorations to decorate the home without spending a bundle, including the Haunted Ghost Globes (pg. 11) and the Halloween Candy Dish (pg. 16).

I ran across a tutorial at AVeryRedKitchen.blogspot for making alphabet beanbags out of old t-shirts.  Check out this picture:

Katie has done a wonderful job of putting together a tutorial for these alphabet bean bags.  She has capital letters on one side and lower case letters on the other side.

After making a set of these bean bags, you can put a small basket in one corner and let the kids play!  I have tons of old t-shirts that have been “begging” to be recycled into something useful!  Looks like I can use the bodies of the t’s for a project and the sleeves for the alphabet bean bags.  Thanks a million, Katie for this great tutorial!

For additional ideas of projects to make for yourself, your customer waiting area, or for the next craft fair, visit PatternsThatFitYou for some free ideas, and Patterns2Go for tons of crafty ideas for men, women, children, neighbors, relatives — anybody you’d want to make something for!

Find crafts, fun and friends at the Craft Forum, and it’s FREE!  Check it out and sign up today.

March is National Craft Month and there is still plenty of time to get involved and use the event in your promotion activities!  There are 63 million households that craft as a hobby and this is a great opportunity to host in-store events, hold contests or other craft themed promotions.

The Craft & Hobby Association, sponsors of National Craft Month for sixteen years, has put together lots of free resources to help you maximize your public relations, tips on holding classes and demonstrations and new ideas on how to use National Craft Month to increase your business.

Dig out your button containers and see how many combinations you can come up with!

Aren’t they just adorable!!!

Check out the home page of Patterns2Go and see other popular patterns for kids and adults, then check out each of the various categories for quick and easy gifts to make — you still have time to make a bunch of gifts!!

Do you live in an area where you hold yard sales or garage sales from time to time?  Or if you live in a subdivision perhaps you can organize a “multi-family” yard sale which will draw even more people to the area.

Our subdivision puts together a semi-annual yardsale – one in April/May and the other around the end of Oct / first part of November.   Last Saturday was the Fall yardsale and I did something I’ve never done before, and I’m here to tell you I’ll be doing it again!

Along with all my racks of kids clothes, outgrown toys and tables of miscellaneous things, this time I made a “gift” table.  For the previous couple of weeks I’d made an assortment of gift items from my fabric scraps and leather scraps.  I went through my Sewing With Leather book and my folders of patterns I’d downloaded from Patterns2Go to see what could be made easily, quickly and cheaply that I could sell.  My gift table was full of toys for kids, stocking stuffer items, gift items that could be given to teachers, neighbors, etc.  I even put a very small Christmas tree on the table and had a sign that read “buy your Christmas gifts early”.  The prices were very good (I’d used scraps to make the items, so really didn’t have much invested in them so could mark them very inexpensively).

My gift table was the most popular spot in the driveway and by noon I was wishing I’d spent more time making extra gift items.

The whole point is this — the yard sale was scheduled and I decided to use it as a “craft” show as well by adding my gift table.  I realize it’s a little late to start organizing something  for this year, but mark it on your calendar so you’ll be prepared to do your own yard sale / craft show next year.  What a great way to use up a bunch of those scraps and bring in extra dollars for Christmas spending!