About Me

Who is Liz Yuille?

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 here. 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!

My husband, Martin, and I have been together since 1992. We have no children but do have three rescue cats (Mustard, Salt and Pepper), know collectively as The Condiments. The way we worry about them, they may as well be children. I think they are our children in fur coats!

Hello Stampin’ Up!

A few years ago, I took the decision to stop working full time at a stupidly serious job in the City of London. Working there for too many years, enduring the 2 hour commute each way from home to desk was not worth it. This means I am in the very fortunate position that I can commit more time to my crafty habit and I am able to share that passion with others and introduce them to the joy this can bring.

For eight years I ran a Stampin’ Up! business and really enjoyed being able to share papercrafts with lots of people across the world. In 2024 I made the really hard decision to resign. I had developed a few really annoying health issues that all had one thing in common ‘stress’. Running a business of any kind takes a LOT of work and I realised that I was spending more time on the Admin than on the actual crafting. I have always found Admin a really stressful part of my life, so with my health issues and the reduction in time for me to craft, I knew that the only, really hard, decision I could make was to step back and resign.

Stampin’ Up! products make this so easy as they are all in colour families. You come to know that the colours are consistent across all the products, so they are a perfect match every time. This is so helpful for new paper crafters who are often daunted by having to find products that ‘go together’. Never a problem with Stampin’ Up!, so I will continue to use their products and have re-joined, but just for me!

Crafting Background

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. Scrapbooking 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 20 years ago I started working with another craft company, travelling round the country in my spare time to Demonstrate in local craft shops. This was great fun and meant I got to meet lots of new people, but it did not completely satisfy me. Then I found Stampin’ Up! and knew straight away that this was my home.

craft for health

Over the years I have found that crafting is a wonderful way to get through some very difficult times. In 2012 I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and went through 6 months of Chemotherapy and 5 operations, not much fun. Happily I am here to tell the tale, but without crafting to keep me distracted I am not sure I would have got through it as well as I did. That experience helped me decide that I must bring the joy of  crafting to as many people as possible.

Unfortunately, in the middle of 2025 I discovered that I have had a very small recurrence of Breast Cancer, so have another 6 cycles of Chemotherapy, a year of injections every 3 weeks because this time the cancer is HER2+ (joy) and at least one operation. There is a possibility that I will also need Radio Therapy, but at the time of updating this, I don’t have confirmation of that.

BUT, I am still crafting, and have made about 100 Christmas Cards so far for 2025. Did you know that just 30 minutes of creativity can make a significant improvement to your well being; more is even better! You now have the perfect excuse to craft forever!!

If you want to get in touch, email me at liz@OldStablesCrafts.co.uk