ETC Attends Maker Faire Austin!

It was a long journey for us to get to Maker Faire, but one that was definitely worth it!

Cathie, Danielle with husband Steve and daugther Zoe, and Jojo with husband Ralph met me at the Travis County Fairgrounds Friday afternoon to set up our booth.

I was the first to arrive, and when I checked us in, I was told that the 10 one-day passes we were told we would need to purchase were actually being given to us at no charge. This meant that none of our workers (or our team) would have to pay admission fees in order to help with our booth. YAY!

I was also told for the first time the location of our booth -- the first booth to the right of the main entrance! This was an excellent location for us!!!

As the others arrived, we worked on the layout of our booth and prepared as much as we could. The rest of the preparations would be done the next morning. We had a 10' by 20' booth, and set it up so that the right end (the end most attendees came to first) was our project side and the left side was our information side. We kept supplies for our projects in the shelves and on the table at the back of the booth. The table on the far left side of our booth is where we kept the extra goodie bags and Taste of Texas grab bags.

A little bit about our information table... The basket on the right end held our promo packs -- envelopes containing our team flyers and business cards / postcards / coupons from 5-6 of our members. Next to the basket was a container holding more of our team flyers with team promos attached to them. The clipboards held the sign-up lists for our newsletter. Everyone who signed up for our newsletter received one of our mini Taste of Texas goodie bags (which we kept in the bottom shelf on the left end of the table). We had the limited number of informational Etsy postcards at the back of the table, so that we could give them only to folks who were not yet familiar with Etsy. Naomi of KillerBeeDesigns had sent several copies of instructions for a fabric postcard, which we also made available on our information table. Finally, we had some of our full-size Taste of Texas samplers available for purchase (and sold 10 of them!). We handed out all but about 10 of the 500+ promo packs that Mom (aka, SeeminglyOldeStuff) help me put together, as well as about 400 goodie bags (we kept running out and having to make more -- thanks bunches to Steve and Zoe for keeping us stocked!). And even with our strict "rationing," we ran completely out of Etsy postcards long before the event was over!

And now, a look at some of the events that took place on the project side of our booth...

On Sunday, we decided to have Danielle set up her sewing machine on the end of project side and keep it available all day - she helped folks make T-Shirt Tote Bags and Denim Water Bottle Carriers, and Zoe (with help from Mom) did a demo on T-Shirt Pillows. At the same time, we continued to rotate projects on the front table.....

In addition to the above projects, we also had a demo by Danielle on how to make 4 bags from a single pair of jeans, a demo by Victoria on making a bird feeder using plastic cartons, and demos by Becky of BeckyMae on making a necklace using new and old jewelery pieces, as well as a Stemware Tags make-and-take by Danielle. Also, Jenny of MissSnappy helped with the booth on Sunday, but managed to avoid all cameras...

When not helping with make-and-take projects, "manning" the information table, or tending to other team issues that arose during the weekend, I got the opportunity to meet several other ETC members, including:
Anne Marie of AnneMarieBeard, Amie of APunkinCardCompany, Becka of BabyBolt, Jen of BelleSouth, Sarah of Carapace, Marianna of ChickRocks, Dave and Tina of Craftiness, Kirstin of CrystalKittyCat, Kristin of FreeForged, Analiese of Grammatron, Jen of LucyBlueStudio, Bonnie of ModelCitizen, Megan of MuttsyWonder, Karen & Lisa of Nerdbomber, Pamela of PamelaMichelle, Sarah of SewCraftyHouston, Stephanie of StephanieK, and Trina of TrinaBrielle.

Want to see more photos and read more about Maker Faire Austin? Check out the following.....

Photos by Amie of APunkinCardCompany
Blog entry by Becka of BabyBolt
Blog entry by Melissa of CrabAppleDesign
(NOTE: The first photo featured in Melissa's blog entry features Tina of Craftiness. Don't you love her shirt?!?)
Photos by Danielle of FabFrills
Photos by Karen of Nerdbomber
Blog entry by Pamela of PamelaMichelle
Photos by Sarah of SewCraftyHouston
Photos by Cathie of SweetWolf
Photos by Trina of TrinaBrielle
Blog entry by Becky of Upsiedoodle

And don't forget to read this interview on the Craftzine blog (Craft: is one of the sponsors of Maker Faire!)

So, was Maker Faire a success? Definitely! We talked with literally thousands of people, telling many of them about Etsy for the first time. We handed out almost 500 promo packs and around 400 goodie bags featuring a variety of our members, as well as handed out hundreds of team flyers and promos and all the Etsy promos that we had on hand. We had close to 400 folks sign up for our team newsletter, and 2 folks join our team. We met lots and lots of great folks, created a ton of awesome projects, and are already discussing what we'll do differently next year! Definitely a successful weekend!!!