My craft Show Checklist

I've seen other checklists of what you should bring to craft shows but I decided to create my own. As I was sitting in the dark last night for almost 4 hours I wrote out my ideas. Our street is always the first to lose power in a storm and the last to get it back for some reason. The checklist was the only productive thing I got done last night. I messed around on my cell phone, played with my camera, walked around the front yard and annoyed Mike as much as possible.

I just listed the Zen Rainbow scarf the other day but I'm getting tempted to keep it and wear it to the show. Be sure to wear your items if appropriate to show people how cool they look on.

So here is what I came up with as the absolute necessities for any craft show or festival.

1. Directions. Sounds obvious but I'm always nervous the morning of so I don't want to trust my memory even if I think I know where I'm going.
2. Vendor information. The organizer will usually e-mail you info like your booth number and parking directions that you will want to have that day.
   
3. Lots of business cards.
4. A little basket or business card holder of some sort so they don't blow away.
5. inventory list with prices. I'm really going to try this year to mark off items as they sell.
   
6. notebook. I like to keep a running tally of how much I've made. Be sure to keep track somehow of how much you make so that you can pay sales tax.
   
7. E-mail sign in sheet. I'm still deciding what I'm going to use for this, probably some sort of notebook.
   
8. Shoe box to store all the little things I'm about to list.
9. tape
10. pens
11. safety pins
12. scissors
13. tape measure
    
14. band aids
15. hand sanitizer, I added this for this year with all the flu fears.
16. Tylenol, tums, allergy medication and whatever other meds you might need.
    
17. paper towels and/or baby wipes
18. tissues
19. breath mints, for all the obvious reasons.
20. water
    
21. Snacks
22. trash bag to dispose of your messes
23. calculator
    
24. receipt book
25. credit card receipts
26. credit card machine
27. cash, I usually bring $100 in cash.
28. cash apron, I prefer to keep my cash on me rather in a cash box that could walk away when I turn around.
29. signs, I make up signs with prices and I have a sign that says I take credit cards.
30. Booth banner. Have some kind of banner that says who you are.
31. Table cloth, I put a sheet beneath my table cloth so that it goes to the ground and covers my stuff under the table.
32. Table. I have a fold up table for those events that don't provide them. Find out for sure ahead of time if you need to bring your own.
33. Display items. I've already talked about these types of things.
    
34. Stool, I prefer a stool rather than a chair. When I used a fold up chair I felt too low to the ground and couldn't keep an eye on everything.
    
35. rug if needed. Since finding out I'm going to be in the outdoor big tent at Strange Folk I've decided to use my bamboo rug under my quilt racks so that things don't get muddy.
36. Extra shoes in case of rain/mud
37. Extra clothes in case of emergencies
38. Mirror, I'm always amazed at how many vendors forget this one and ask to borrow mine.
39. Shopping bags of some sort. Paper lunch bags can work for small purchases.
    
40. Tools to "fix things", if you make jewelry bring some extra findings just in case.
41. Something to work on if things are slow. I personally have a hard time knitting but many people like to keep busy.
    
42. cell phone, never know when you'll need it.
43. camera, so you can take lots of pictures of your booth for your blog!

Let me know if you think of anything I missed. I hope it helps someone who sees something that might have forgotten.