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 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.

Have you ever wondered about what its like to balance a family and a small home business? Perhaps you are in that situation yourself so you already know. For those who don’t I thought I’d elaborate. I’m a stay at home Mum. I have two girls and we do a lot of things together during the week from art to dress-ups to playing outside. I love being a Mum even though its a difficult job with the biggest responsibility, I’d never change it. Like many stay at home Mums with small home businesses I have struggled to balance life between the girls and my own creativity. How much time can I really dedicate to my on-line shops? What sort of focus can I really have? I’ve had to find ways to get around this while maintaining my family as the main focus.

Recently I wrote a post on my other blog in which I shared how I take my photographs. It was entitled ‘Click Click Work, Click Click Kids’, a bit of a photo journalistic way of showing you what its like to split my time. I thought that maybe readers of this blog would enjoy that post so here is the link:

Click Click Work, Click Click Kids

If you feel like leaving a comment on there or on here (I would love to ‘meet’ some of the readers of this blog) it would be wonderful to hear from you.

If you would like to take a look at the first edition, please click on this link: Polyclarific Newsletter #1

Here is the introduction I wrote this time:

“Hello!

Thank you for subscribing to my newsletter. I am planning to send one out every six weeks. Each newsletter will have news on sales, gift ideas, new items and a discount for subscribers.

As of the second newsletter I am hoping to include a brief interview with another on-line seller.

Thanks for supporting hand made!

Amanda.”

The prices on these have been adjusted to suit and all of these are available in my Etsy store here. I will be continuing to make changes to the store. Don’t forget that we also have two other stores, BeadPile (full of unique and lovely beads) and KeLu (filling up with paper goods). Take a minute to have a look at those stores if you can. I’d also love some feedback so drop me a hello in the comments if you have a minute!