Positives

- Great room – lots of light

- Wide isles (for prams)

- I handed out around 200 of my postcards

- I talked to and met a lot of people who have seen my facebook page (and ‘liked’ it)

- Stall holders were allowed free tea and coffee and Tash handed out cake too

- Great company – my friend Narelle helped me for the day and I was next to Jacquie from Empire of Delight

- The location was so close to my home, I loved that it took us under 10 mins to get there.

Negatives

- Possibly not enough signage to the event (although Tash’s signs didn’t arrive in time)

- I didn’t make one sale

- Some of the similar stalls were next to or close to each other

- I would prefer that the market was open to Mums who sell not just people who sell to ages 0-10

- More activities for kids would be fantastic – places to buy popcorn, fairy floss or even giving away balloons would be great.

Will I do another Handmade Children’s Market? I think I would if I was able to sell my jewellery and beads.  I think that any market (not just this one) doesn’t suit my cupcake toppers.

Not selling anything when the people who are coming for the day are your specific target market is a bit hard to understand. I also didn’t make back my stall fee and as a family who has to watch the pennies it was a bit of an ask to apply (the fee was a good price though and Tash very kindly went out of her way to provide us with insurance). If I could sell say, Christmas decorations then I might reconsider closer to Christmas as I really did enjoy the day.

In all it was a good morning and I’m really hoping that some of you who took one of my postcards will come and chat sometime soon about some cupcake toppers or cake toppers. Here’s some photos of the day:

Take a look at the images on this post to see what I currently have available.

Keep in mind that I am able to make ‘almost’ anything within reason so don’t be shy in asking. There is no obligation to order anything after inquiring.

I am also happy to negotiate a price for orders of 15 and more cupcake toppers. Most toppers start at $3.00 (Australian, currency converter here) and can go up to around $20 for the most complicated (the larger robot shown below or anything similar).

One suggestion is to order a specialty cupcake topper for the birthday girl or boy (or adult) and something smaller and lower priced to match for each child who comes along.

Please note that these are not edible, they are meant as keepsakes.

Each cupcake topper has a long wooden cocktail stick attached to poke into your cake to fix it in place. These are made to be removable and replaceable so you don’t have to reuse a cocktail stick with food residue on it.

As you may know, these sticks are very pointy and should not be left for small children to play with but removed before the cake is eaten. I would recommend cupcake toppers with sticks attached for children over 6 years old. I am able to make toppers with no sticks which you will need to push into the icing to help them sit in the right position.

Another suggestion is to order a larger cake topper for the birthday cake and smaller cupcake toppers to match. For example, the castle cake topper and matching pink crowns for the cupcakes. The combinations are endless!

I look forward to discussing a combination to suit your party or special occasion. Orders will take 1-2 weeks to complete so be sure to order  with plenty of time before your event.

Contact me on polyclarific[at]oddsocks[dot]net. I hope to hear from you soon!

Amanda.

The details for the market are:

Handmade Children’s Market

Saturday 4th September 2010 at

Melville Civic Centre Main Hall, Booragoon WA
9:00am – 1:00pm
FREE Entry

Here’s what I’ll be showing (and hopefully more samples will be made before then);

The winner of the design competition is:

Number 20 – Tonja Lenderman

Tonja chose number 6 as her favourite so that’s what I will be doing next. Thanks Tonja! You get to choose any card out of KeLu for free and 30% off your order (excluding shipping).

Keep an eye out for Polyclarific’s facebook treasure hunt which will be happening very soon.

This is my standard logo, I’ve used this for Polyclarific from the start and its one of the first things I made when I started with polymer clay. I love it still and it remains my logo.

I changed it for the first time to this:

I liked it and it was nice to have a change. I also thought I had done what had been suggested in ‘making the most’ of my profile pic. Wrong.

I spotted another business’s profile pic the other day, it was 180mm x 60mm! ‘Wow’ I thought, ‘so thats what they meant by making the most of it’. I set to making a bigger profile pic right away. I didn’t realise you could do that on facebook, I always thought they had to small and square.

I’m quite limited with resources and knowledge as far as computer software goes but after using GIMP for a couple of hours (and you can see how inexperienced I am by the results after that long) I created this profile pic:

Ahhhh much better! I like it. I’d love to fuzzy up the edges of the photos and be able to do more with the software I have but this was the best I could put together in the time frame I had (while my daughter was sleeping). So, perhaps you have a business page on facebook. I encourage you to make the most of your profile pic too!

If you promote this competition on your blog, twitter or facebook I will happily give you an extra entry per promo. Every time you promote, please leave a comment and a link in the comments on the following post (the one below this one);

http://polyclarific.com/2010/07/design-competition/

*All images are copyrighted and may not be used or copied in any way.

Thanks for entering, please spread the word about the competition, the more the merrier!

The cards were made using a gocco printer .

You can find all these designs in my Etsy store KeLu which is here.

I have a few designs so far but would love to hear your suggestions for your favourite design (which you would like to see made into a card or card set). I’ll be adding a blog competition to choose the next design and the winner will receive a card of their choice and 30% off anything in KeLu (excluding shipping). Look out for that blog post later today!

Thanks!

Amanda

From July 20 – August 17 everything in Polyclarific except items in the 1950s section are on sale for 25% off. Prices have not been adjusted so please wait to pay after an adjusted invoice has been sent! Happy Shopping. Does not include shipping.

In other news, the second Polyclarific newsletter will be coming out tonight, sign up on the right hand sidebar if you would like to recieve it. It will include discounts for subscribers and information on other products.

Polyclarific’s new venture is into the world of cake topper making. You can see from the photos I have started to build up a range of available cake toppers.

Children’s Birthday Cake Toppers
I am happy to custom make any topper for you. Maybe your little girl likes rocket ships but would prefer it to be in purple or pink, no problem! Perhaps your son loves trains, I’d be happy to make one for you. If you were after a more masculine castle I can adjust the style for you. I am able to make any number you need in any colour and can colour match if you wanted to send me a swatch of fabric. I am able to add their name to the topper also.

Special Occassion Cake Toppers
I will be putting together a sample range of toppers for special birthdays (21st, 40th etc..) as well as themes more suited to adults such as a handbag, golf set and more. If you have a theme you are after please feel free to ask.
I am also happy to make cake toppers for the celebration of Christmas and Retirement and am able to put names on the topper too.

Cupcake Toppers
I will soon be putting together a range of cupcake toppers for children’s birthday parties. These will be attached to a toothpick (which will be removable so the topper can be reused) and can be custom made with your son or daughter’s name embossed into the clay or even in a basic theme (eg; rainbows, numbers, stars, flowers).

The range of toppers will be priced between $4ea (for the most basic cupcake toppers) up to $120ea (Noah’s ark, castle and anything that takes up to 5 hours to create).  Feel free to contact me at polyclarific[at]oddsocks.net or through my Etsy store to discuss a custom order. The toppers shown are samples and are not for sale.