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Martha Crane of Martha's Monogramming & Gifts said sales were down at the Magnolia Blossom Festival this year due to the economy.

Anne Sands, left, stands by as her daughter, Kaylynn Sands, 9, looks at handmade pencils from Flerken Crafts, LLL, of Shreveport.

Robin Smith of the Trendy Trailer Women's Boutique from Fruitvale, TX, said the craft show economy is hurting -- people who used to buy several shirts now buy only one.

Martha Crane of Martha's Monogramming & Gifts said sales were down at the Magnolia Blossom Festival this year due to the economy.

Anne Sands, left, stands by as her daughter, Kaylynn Sands, 9, looks at handmade pencils from Flerken Crafts, LLL, of Shreveport.

Robin Smith of the Trendy Trailer Women's Boutique from Fruitvale, TX, said the craft show economy is hurting -- people who used to buy several shirts now buy only one.

Although steaks are the centerpiece of the Magnolia Blossom Festival and World Championship Steak Cook-Off, some people are looking for more than beef when they head downtown each year.

And if they were looking for arts, crafts, jewelry, and kids’ items, like the Pop It, they found them. However, many vendors said getting to festivals like the one in Magnolia is becoming harder due to rising gasoline prices.

Martha Crane, who lives near Lake Village and has an at-home business called Martha’s Monogramming and Gifts, said she had to go up on her prices because of increased costs for supplies she uses to make door hangers.

“Well lumber has doubled, and the paint prices have gone up 30 to 40 percent,” she said. “I have had to raise my prices on the door hangers from $25 to $30 to cover this and people are looking at stuff, but they are just not letting go of their money.”

Crane’s granddaughter, Gracie Cessor, 15, who was helping her grandmother with the booth Saturday, said she understands why people are being so careful with their money.

“The thing is they don’t want to spend $30 on a door hanger when they have to put all that money in the gas tank,” Cessor said.

Calli Dees of Magnolia, who sells items such as jewelry and car freshies from her business, Rustic Outlaw, said the gas prices are affecting her business when it comes to traveling to out-of-town festivals. She said she typically goes to a Mount Vernon, Texas festival but it takes $80 to fill up her tank.

“We have to mark up the product just to pay for the gas prices,” she said.

Several booths down were Flerken Crafts LLC, with the business motto as being “Handcrafted Items for the young and young at heart.” The business hails out of Shreveport and is operated by mother and daughter team, Deborah, and Jennifer Carter.

Deborah Carter said she has an electric car that the pair uses in their hometown so that they can save to go to festivals such as the Magnolia Blossom Festival.

“The electric car beats gas prices, because prices got ridiculous,” she said.

Deborah Carter said the business mascot is Marvel’s Flerken Cats, alien creatures resembling Earth cats in appearance and behavior. They reproduce by laying up to 117 eggs and possess many tentacles that can extend from their mouths. Their bodies also hold pocket realities, bubbles of space and time that exist in other worlds.

Their products include wooden toys, handmade dragons, tiny dolls, some which look like colorful mermaids, colorful magical looking pencils and more.

“We want people to play more,” Deborah Carter said. “I have two three-year-old grandchildren and they already have iPads. Toys have to counteract that.”

Daughter Jennifer Carter echoed her mother’s sentiments.

“They don’t even know nursery rhymes anymore,” she said.

Across downtown in another festival site, Kane Djinja, an African native whose business is in Memphis includes selling purses, African outfits, sunglasses and more at festivals said the gas prices cannot be a deterrent for business.

“We go all around Tennessee, all weekends,” he said. “I’ve got to do business. I can’t just sit by.”

Robin Smith of The Trendy Trailer, women’s boutique on wheels from Fruitvale, Texas near Canton, said not only was the gas expensive to get to Magnolia because the truck that hauls the trailer takes diesel, but the festival has higher fees than other festivals.

She said business was slow in the morning on Saturday but picked up throughout the day and people started buying. They just were not buying as much.

“I think gas prices are having an impact and I think with the economy going like it is, it’s going to affect our trailer,” she said. “People used to buy three or four shirts, and now they buy one.”