Pootles’ 12 Deals of Christmas + A look back at Pootles during 2013

12 Deals of Christmas.

So, what’s this all about? Well, I don’t do sales, and I don’t do discounts. In my professional opinion, Stampin’ Up! offers the best quality products at the best prices around (and with over 10 years crafting experiences, trust me, I’ve tried ‘em all!). So you won’t ever see me offering to reduce the prices of products, or sharing my discount. But what I want to do, as a one off, just for Christmas, is offer 12 extra goodies that go into the regular Thank You Gift Pack that I send out to all my customers.

Each ‘deal’ will only be available for the stated day, and will vary in price, product and value.

I get an immediate email notification of all orders that come in, so you don’t need to worry about getting in touch, or emailing to say you want to take advantage of the deal, I’ll send it out automatically.

Today’s Deal is –

All orders over £100 will receive a Million & One Stamp Set from me, inside their regular Thank You Gift Pack. It will come direct from me, as this is an offer direct from me. It will not come with the order you place.

Fine Print. This is not a catch, there is no single winner, this is not a competition. Please do not add it to your order, (unless of course you want duplicates!) as I will be sending this separately.

All Thank You Gift Packs will be posted after the 12 Deals of Christmas have finished.

I hope you enjoyed this project, please do use the hostess code when shopping to support Pootles! (hostess code shown in the top right of my blog for the current one!)

 

 

 

Stampin’ Up! UK A look back at Pootles during 2013

Well, 2013 was an absolute roller coaster of a year!

It started off with me deciding to stop promoting my makeup work (we’re recession hit here in North Wales in the Luxury Goods Market I work in), as the advertising costs were rising, but the clients were dropping off. It’s a killer to drive around my area and see banners outside hotels declaring ‘get married here for £1,000…

But, I needed to supplement my income somehow, but still juggle 4 small sons, the youngest at the time was only 20 months old.

Crafting is one of those fabulously relaxing hobbies, and I’d often while away an evening making notebooks, stationery etc, while chatting to my husband and pondering the potential to make some more money.

It was around this time in the spring that I started to think that actually, maybe crafting could take the place of makeup, and thus the idea to sell my creations was born.

Fast forward a few weeks and it led me to finding and researching my now upline within Stampin’ Up! and a race to join during the special Sale a Bration promotion period.

I did it! Scraping in with about 48 hours to spare!

And after those initial few days of thinking I’d just buy bits for myself, my whole plans turned themselves upside down when I had a light bulb moment of realisation that when you’re a mum to 4 very young children, you have a husband that works 5 weekends out of 9, and craft fayre attendance to sell completed projects was going to be minimal, I needed to change tack.

And that’s when YouTube came to mind.

My first video aired the day before Oliver turned 2, on April 16th, and those first few tentative (slightly waffly!) videos were how it all started.

At first the timing of writing blogs and posting videos was a little haphazard, but within a couple of months, I’d got into the swing of having a blog post every day, and a regular 3 times a week slot on youtube. And so it continues now.

My facebook page is fantastically interactive, but I felt that all those people chatting to me on there would gain great support from talking with one another, so I opened up the Pootles Craft Forum facebook group. I love watching the way these lovely ladies and gentlemen are becoming friends

October saw the start of my online class collaborations with Angie Kennedy Juda from MyChicnScratch.com and we have many great plans for 2014…

November and the mad creation of Envelope Punch Board Week in less than 5 days was crazy levels of busy, but with literally hundreds of people signing up to view this class, and the one prior, it was worth every moment of time. Even if it was a case of filming 12 videos in one day, ending at gone 1 in the morning…!

I suppose the most humbling parts about this year have been watching little milestones clock by. 100 video subscribers, 200, 500, 1000! And passing milestones with my blog readership and subscribers, and reaching my 100th video.

As of the time of writing (still December!), I’ve got coming up to 7,000 video subscribers, in excess of 380,000 video views. I’ve uploaded over 150 videos (some are hidden and viewable only through classes and by my team!) and have surprised myself that I can actually talk that much!

Over 6,000 of you subscribe to my blog and well over 360,000 hits to the blog in that time!

All of you who watch and read and click the subscribe/follow buttons are amazing. You’re what keep me going!

My team though. Oh my wonderful marvellous downline.

33 of them, in the last 8 months have chosen to join me. That gives me a wonderful fuzzy feeling inside that I’m good enough for them. And they too are now growing their own teams aswell, and that result makes me know I’m doing something right.

I love how my girls (as they’re all girls, no matter how old or young they are!) have taken their Stampin’ Up! business and made it their own. Some are doing parties and workshops, some are taking personal commissions. Others are growing their teams, and some are now doing their own video tutorials too!

Each and every one of them is very special to me, and I’ve taken time in the last few weeks to tell them all individually that.

So what’s ahead for 2014?

I have a list as long as my arm for videos and projects.

I’m planning some more online classes throughout the year, so watch this space for details!

I also have some goals for my own achievements this year and I believe that sharing these goals will help make them happen. And the Stampin’ Up! year is actually October to September, so we’re already 3 months in…

I want to achieve the Incentive Trip that Stampin’ Up! offers all it’s demonstrators. 5* holiday in Madeira in Portugal for myself and my husband is one heck of an incentive!

I’d like to help at least 15 of my team promote up to Bronze 2.

I’d like to help 8 of them recruit and grown their own team and promote to Bronze 3

I want to promote twice more to get to Gold 1 and I will be working hard with my team to help them promote through the Silver levels also in order to achieve this.

I would like to achieve sales of £26,000 this year which would enable me to take my husband away for a well earned weekend break. Just the two of us. Something that hasn’t happened in many many years.

Many many plans ahead for this year!

But I wanted to leave you with a little look back at some of my favourite projects from 2013, and with my heartfelt thanks for your love, support, and business.

(click on any of the images to find the original blog post!)

Sam xx

please do use the hostess code when shopping to support Pootles! (hostess code shown in the top right of my blog for the current one!)

Sam Donald

Stampin’ Up! UK Independent Demonstrator

If you’d like any of the supplies, to shop, or to get a catalogue, please feel free to contact me, and of course you can shop online with Stampin’ Up! UK directly through me by clicking the ‘shop now’ button above. And if you’re thinking of joining Stampin’ Up! and want to join my team of Pootlers (that’s them over there in the side bar!) I’d most definitely like to hear from you! I have a YouTube channel (over there on the right!) and you can find me by searching PootlesPapercraft, Pootles Paper Craft or Pootles Papercraft! (I like the variety!)