I’m Liz Yuille and I live near Abingdon in Oxfordshire. We moved here from West London only a few short years ago and love it. Our home is on an unmade up track and is on the footprint of the old stable block for one of the original farms in the village, hence Old Stables Crafts!
I am married to Martin and although we have no children, we have three rescue cats (Mustard, Salt and Pepper), know collectively as The Condiments.
I recently took the decision to stop working full time at a stupidly serious job in the City of London, having worked there for too many years enduring the 2 hour commute each way from home to desk, and now work part-time from home. This means I am in the very fortunate position that I can commit more time to my Stampin’ Up! business. I am able to share my papercrafting passion with others and introduce them to the joy this can bring. Stampin’ Up! products make this so easy as they are all in colour families; you also know that the colours are consistent across all the products, so they are a perfect match every time. This is particularly helpful for new papercrafters who are often daunted by having to find products that ‘go together’, this is never a problem with Stampin’ Up!
Although I have crafted in one way or another all my life (and went to Fashion College along the way), my first foray into papercraft was through Scrapbooking. This is still my main passion and I am fortunate that many of my family are recorded on film; the oldest photo dating back to the 1880s. Most of the photos I have inherited are now in scrapbooks with as much detail about those depicted as I have been able to find.
About 15 years ago I started working with another Craft Company, travelling round the country in my spare time to Demonstrate in local craft shops; whilst this was great fun and meant I got to meet lots of new people, it did not completely satisfy my wish to run my own classes and be my own boss as I was expected to use products I was told to promote. Then I found Stampin’ Up! and knew straight away that this was my home.
Since joining the amazing Stampin’ Up! family, I have exceeded normal expectations of advancement. I moved from the starting level of Bronze to Bronze Elite in just two months (the Quick Start Programme, which not everyone achieves, allows six months for this), and from Bronze Elite to Silver just five months later. I was selected to join a Business Training programme to help me to continue with the growth of my business, which is an amazing honour and has helped me achieve Silver Elite in under 2 years; I am now a Stampin’ Up! Leader.
My Team includes some people who, like me, want to make this a successful business, but is mostly people who joined for the discount they get on their own purchases and I am happy to support both, or someone who wants something in the middle.
I am thrilled to have been selected as a winner by the Global Design Project Team and to have been asked to join the Design Team for Inspire.Create.Challenges. These are such great and talented groups of people from across the globe, and there are so many truly spectacular projects submitted. I have been invited to join other Design Teams as Guest Designer, which ihas been amazing.
I was also asked to present at OnStage, the Demonstrator only half yearly event, in November 2017, this is a true honour, although presenting to a conference room full of hundreds of other Demonstrators is a little scary.
Although my first papercrafting experience as an adult was through scrapbooking, I also enjoy making cards and small gift boxes and packaging for my own use and to sell, and spend more time doing this than on scrapbooking now. I make all the cards we need now and could never imagine having to buy a mass produced card again. All our Christmas Cards (and that is well over 100) are hand made and unique.
Over the years I have found that crafting is a wonderful way to get through some very difficult times, and whilst I hope none of you ever has to experience the bad times, I hope I can bring the joy of crafting to as many people as possible.
I love meeting lots of budding and experienced crafters as I travel around the area running classes and hosting parties; I hope to meet you soon.
If you shop with me you will always receive a Thank You card, and if your order is over £25 you will also become a VIP Rewards Member.
Email me at liz.yuille@artlover.com or call me on 07958 342313 to book a party, place an order, talk about joining my Team, an upcoming class or event or for any help.
