I love crafting, which is why I spend countless hours creating handcrafts in my workshop. One of my favorite activities is preparing for upcoming craft shows. I love the last few days just before a show, packaging and pricing merchandise, deciding on how I'll set up my booth depending on the time of the year, and making last minute additions to my inventory.
What I particularly love is creating my bag toppers for my projects. I am a graphic designer as well as a crafter, so designing bag toppers for seasonal shows is a task I do myself. With a color printer and some card stock, bag toppers are easy to make.
First I decide on the color of card stock I plan to use. Then I determine the size topper I need for each size bag I will be using. After I determine the size of the bag topper, I can then sketch out my design layout.
On each topper, I like to utilize applicable seasonal designs. For fall shows, I use graphics such as pumpkins, colorful leaves, Halloween images, and Thanksgiving themed designs. Christmas toppers will have reindeer, vintage Santas, snowmen, Christmas trees, angels, and prim stars.
I make certain to leave plenty of room for the text. The text should be in a font size that shoppers can easily read. I usually put my pricing on the topper, also, along with my business name, address, telephone number, and website URL.
I use card stock for my bag toppers because it is more durable than paper and can withstand the packing, unpacking, and repacking at the craft shows. If some toppers become worn from trips to several shows, I simply replace them with newly printed ones when necessary.
The bag toppers are not expensive to make. The card stock and the printer ink are the only tangibles involved. The main "expense" for the toppers is my time in designing the graphics on them so they will be attractive to customers.
The bags themselves are in varying sizes and while they do not cost that much individually, I buy them in bulk so initially there is some capital to be outlaid up front. I try to limit how many different sizes I need because I buy a specific size in quantities of 1000 or so.
Even if you don't want to make your own bag toppers or just don't feel graphically inclined on the computer, you can still purchase toppers ready made from a graphic designer with your custom information on them.
Bag toppers are a wonderful way to merchandise your crafts because they, like your handcraft creations, reflect your artistic talent and shoppers are attracted to tasteful and appealing product packaging.
Don't have the time or desire to make your own bag toppers? Buy some affordable and attractive Custom Bag Toppers at Penney Layne Graphics. Penney Layne also offers DIY Site Hosting and EZ Street Shoppe virtual online craft booths so you can showcase your products online for only $2.08 a month!
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