Artfest 2010 Trades

I am heading to Artfest next week and I am getting very excited. Imagining 550 plus creative people in the same area for 5 days sounds pretty exciting. I am collecting supplies and making many lists. One item I have delayed on a little while is the trade I am going to bring.

Trade as in trades as in 100 plus handmade goodies you bring to trade with other Artfesters. Now, it is not a requirement by any means, but it is highly recommended on the message boards as a way to meet people and get your name and website out there.

I did some Googling to see what other people had done in the past and a lot of it seemed like little charms, or magnets, or pins. I don't really have a small, signature item that I make that would be appropriate and besides, I think if I tried to make some small pin they would end up mediocre anyways and nobody would remember me.

So, I was wracking my brains, trying to think of something to bring and I thought, "ah ha!" what about something to put all your little trades into? I am good at making little drawstring baggies with linings. Even though I have oodles and oodles of fabric (it's a serious problem of mine, collecting fabric), I had to go to the fabric store to find stuff more appropriate to the fairy tales theme.

I started to experiment with different sized baggies.

I also decided I wanted to try and do some iron-on transfers. (That's one of my 36 Things To Do Before 37, so I might as well kill two birds with one stone, yes?)

Only problem, is I am not sure I like the dark gray fabric I picked out (and I have a lot of it) I actually like the backing, the light gray side better.
What do you think? I have so many ideas swimming in my head, it is hard to chose! I have started cutting out fabric and ribbon and printed all the iron-on sheets I need, but I can't decide on the gray.

I am hoping to make 100 of these in the next 5 days, we'll see what happens! But I think they will be memorable trades and quite different from everything I am seeing so far.