5 craft fair treasures for the thrifty crafter in need of inspiration

I recently visited a few craft fairs before Christmas. One was at the PNE forum called Make It! and the other was at the local Croatian Cultural Centre which was jovially called the “Last Minute Christmas Market” as it was held quite close to Christmas day. I love attending craft fairs because they’re so full of ideas, creativity, imagination and inspiration. I’m always amazed by what people can accomplish using simple every day materials. Below are a few examples of the wonderful things I saw.

*Disclaimer: I don’t make royalties for posting the following vendors on my blog, I just thought they were pretty awesome and I would like to share them with the world.

List of awesome inspiring creations found at the craft fairs:

1. Repurposed books and book covers

Someone was selling journals and coasters and intricate hanging art made from repurposed old books. Below is an example from another person’s online store…I couldn’t find the original one that I saw, but you get the idea.

repurposed book cover journal

Here’s a link for more ideas and instructions on how to make your creations from old books you have lying around.

2. Vanilla Beans

Lots of people were selling cheap vanilla beans, some places were 2 beans for $5, I even saw 5 beans for $12 which is really a steal considering they can go for $12 per bean in some places. So I definitely recommend stocking up on vanilla beans when you visit craft fairs. They’re usually hidden in random food stands but you’ll find them.

3. Coconama Gourmet Chocolates

A japanese chef has been spreading the love of gourmet ganache chocolates all over town at basically every craft fair I’ve been to. And let me tell you, his chocolates are divine!

They’re creamy, soft, delicate and bursting with flavour. He takes draws on a lot of his asian roots and creates really unique flavours like lemon basil, cherry blossom, dark chilli but the best by far is matcha. You can tell that the chef uses only the finest ingredients and even the white chocolates were very flavourful. Usually I don’t like white chocolates because they’re just overwhelmingly sweet, but not these ones, these are mostly just full of flavour with just the right amount of sweetness.

I definitely recommend trying out these chocolates or you may find some other delicious gourmet chocolates you might find at your local craft fairs. But if you’d like a taste of these gourmet goodies, you can purchase them online here at www.coconama.com.

4. Essential Oils

Essential oils are generally pretty pricey, if any of you make your own soap or own a nebulizer, you’d know what I’m talking about. In general, a 5 ml bottle costs between 12-30 dollars at places like Saje and Escents. But at craft fairs, a multitude of people will some sell them at a 10-50% discount. You can usually find them at the stands for homemade soaps, lotions, and candles.

For example I bought a 20 ml bottle of 100% lavender oil sourced from France for 15 dollars. It has a nice intense scent, not weak like other lavender oils I’ve sniffed.

I even found a stand devoted solely to selling essential oils. But I do have to warn that you should go into some trusted stores like Saje to have a sniff of the essential oils so you know what you’re looking for. Make sure to check:

1. where they sourced the oils

2. pricing from one oil to the next, different oils should cost differently. It should be a clear flag for fraudulence if the oils all cost the same price.

3. storage bottles – the bottles should be dark coloured to protect from light which damages the oils and reduces their quality.

4. how they smell – You should have some idea of how each oil is supposed to smell, if something smells foul or funky, it’s probably been contaminated or not what it’s advertised to be. Just trust your senses.

5. Crochet Garments

Scarves, hats, mittens, coats, mug cozies galore!

If you’re looking for some hand knit ideas and inspirations craft fairs are chock full of them. I didn’t want to take pictures of any of the wares because I wasn’t planning to buy so it would look really bad if I did. Therefore I’ll show pictures that look like the creations I saw some of which are located at this 9gag post.

but you can find other things like cozies for your mugs and mason jars like these:

Here’s a cup cozy my BFF made for me for Christmas:

My caramel brule latte all warm and fuzzy coated in sheep. Hahaha, I call it sheep because she used real wool, not acrylic.

And there were so many knit items for babies, everything from blankets, to bibs to jackets and booties. If you don’t knit for babies, you will after attending a craft fair haha!

Bonus!

As soon as I saw these, I was instantly intrigued and in love with them:

Giggle

They’re called giggles and they’re a puppet that wraps around your arm. Sort of reminded me of a sloth wanting some cuddles. Feeling lonely? Need a friend? Need a hug? Not to worry, you’ve got all a cuddly friend in a Giggle!

You just put your arm through the puppet, then wrap the arms and legs around you which clip together likely via a Velcro attachment.

You can check them out here.

That’s it for now, so stop reading and go find a craft fair! They often come in the spring, fall and winter.

Winter Knotted Scarf

So a few years ago, I bought a whole pack of good wool yarn off of ebay. It was really cheap, 10 spools of yarn for 12 dollars! And wool too! But as much as I loved the yarn, I had no idea what to use it for and it was too precious for me to fool around with it. So I’ve just been stashing it for a bit.

Finally in November, I was trying to figure out what to get my boyfriend for Christmas. Around the same time, at the University, many local vendors were setting up a Christmas market and selling all sorts of beautiful circle scarves. I ended up buying one since I didn’t have one and I felt they were so handy and easy to wear. BTW, I totally recommend everyone have a circle scarf!
But still I had the problem of what to make my boyfriend for Christmas. At first I thought about making him a circle scarf as well, but after looking at many images of male models sporting a circle scarf, I decided…it just wasn’t manly enough for his style. Some men can pull it off really well, but it just wasn’t his style.

But thankfully I came across this tutorial online on how to make a beautiful knotted scarf for your man.

It wasn’t the easiest scarf to start at first and I had to unravel it a few times and start over but once you get past the first 10 rows, it gets pretty stable.

It’s a wonderful and simple project for someone who has moderate experience in knitting and really fun to do in front of the TV.

I have only one suggestion to this pattern, and that’s to increase the initial number of stitches cast from the pattern’s 37 to 52 stitches as I found the scarf according to the tutorial to be too narrow. But that’s my only suggestion.

I hope you all have lots of fun doing this scarf and if you have any suggestions of other awesome scarves, please do post a comment below!