Plastic or paper bags with your shop name - for shows

Depending on the size of the show there may be restrictions; odds are though it is small enough that they don’t have an exclusive sponsorship for show bags.

You can shop around, common sites that will do a great job (not necessarily the cheapest though) are www.branders.com, www.motivators.com, www.usimprints.com, do a search for tradeshow giveaways or promotional items.

Pricies will vary from site to site, so will quality. You’re probably looking at about $150 for paper bags, $200 for plastic or around $400 for nonwoven cloth (like reusable grocery bags) per 500 bags. That would include the item and printing, shipping is probably another $50.

Any promotional products distributor will be able to get them for you.

-- DeputyDawg

I used to use these folks http://www.nebs.com/nebsEcat/index.jsp

-- Lew- Time traveler. Purveyor of the world's finest custom rolling pins!

Personally, I think it’s a waste of money. People are looking at booths while walking around and unless you have neon lights on the bag, they will not see the name. I use clear bags so when customers are walking around, others see the product that’s being carried in it. If another potential customer is interested enough after seeing the product in the clear bag, they will find your booth or ask where it was purchased.

I buy all my bags from Uline.

-- I don't make mistakes, only design changes....www.dgmwoodworks.com

Closet guy,
I have a lot of small christmas ornaments that i will be selling at the show. The plastic bag is a good idea but it might be a little tacky to just throw the ornament into a plastic bag. It should be kept in a small box to prevent damage. Clear plastic bags are suitable for bigger items but the small items won’t work.

do you have any suggestion dealing with the small items and having them be “shown off” in customer’s arms? Also where does everyone get their small boxes from?

-- Please visit my Etsy site, http://www.etsy.com/shop/cgurnham or http://www.christinagurnham.com You can also follow me on my artfire blog: http://www.artfire.com/users/cgurnham/blog

I use to go to Food Expo, computer, car,all those shows people are always giving free stuff out. Everyone that carry **loads of stuff are always looking for free bags.

When I get home, I’ll look through all of them.

-- shdesign3.com

Think of it this way. 99.999% of the people coming to the shows will walk by your booth. It’s not like you need to advertise that you are there, because people come to shows to look at all the booths. I’m not sure if the clear plastic bags actually accomplish anything, but I have heard comments from other artists that they have seen people carrying my stuff around. My items are big and heavy, except for the bookmarks. Most women put the bookmarks in their purses or in another bag they are already carrying. The plastic bags are used so oil from the cutting boards won’t get on their clothes. The fact that they are clear was just by accident. Another woodworker at a show made a comment to me that it was a good advertising choice to use the clear bags. Until then, I hadn’t really thought about it that way.

Miss Gurnie, I had a wood ornament maker next to me a while back and she just put them into small thin paper bags. She sold a bunch of those ornaments that weekend.

-- I don't make mistakes, only design changes....www.dgmwoodworks.com

Miss Gurnie-
I have my first show on Sunday, so I have been thinking about this same thing. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I put it off and put it off and now I have less then a week.
I am not sure if I really want to do craft shows, this first one is a little trial to see how much I love (or hate) it. Since it might be my only show, I didn’t want to spend tons of money on bags, or get thousands of bags and never know what to do with them.
I am using brown paper lunch bags. I went to walmart and got 100 bags for $2. I had a couple of stamps from an old hobby, so I stamped “Thank You” and a leaf on each bag. Most of my stuff is small, jewelry and Christmas’s ornaments, so the size perfect.
I don’t really know how many I should expect to need, I may be taking my lunch in “Thank You” bags all year.
Good luck, let me know what you end up using.

-- ----- www.KNWoodworking.com ----- --

Mrs N,
What a cute idea. A stamp, and a lunch bag are great ideas. I think i might do that (except personalize the stamp.) thank you for your suggestion. Reply to this thread after you do your show this weekend. i’d love to hear how it went.

-- Please visit my Etsy site, http://www.etsy.com/shop/cgurnham or http://www.christinagurnham.com You can also follow me on my artfire blog: http://www.artfire.com/users/cgurnham/blog