Happy 1st Stampin’ Up! UK Anniversary Pootles.co.uk!

Stampin’ Up! UK Happy 1st Anniversary Pootles.co.uk!

It’s my 1st Stampin’ Up! Anniversary today!

I’m completely baffled as to where the last year has gone, but it also feels as though I’ve been with Stampin’ Up! since forever!

I joined Easter weekend last year, and my original plan had been to buy products at a discounted rate so that I could continue to make stationery and notebooks that I was trying to sell through a new webshop I’d opened.

Craft fayres are very seasonal here – Christmas, Easter and that’s really about it! So I was doing my best to fund my crafting hobby by making notebooks and desk stationery and selling it online.

I was actually doing quite well, but when I stopped and thought about it, I wanted to try and get a greater profit margin, which was where Stampin’ Up! came in. I’d been following Angie Juda and Connie Stewart on YouTube for a fair few months (Both US demos, both good friends of mine now!), and an idea started to form in my mind.

I knew I wanted to join SU, but scraped in with literally 48 hours before the end of the Sale a Bration period, exactly where we’re at today, but other than buying for me, I didn’t have any great plans for having a business or doing parties.

As I chatted more and more with my brand new upline, I began to think more about YouTube. I also work as a makeup artist, and have a number of friends who have successful beauty channels, and I started to wonder if this was something I could do.

Could I be the British Chic n Scratch?! Angie will laugh at that, but I decided that actually, I wanted to be me. Just me.

I’ve never been anything other than that, and I think you know me pretty well by now. I’m just a girl, who’s a Mum, Wife, Crafter and YouTuber.  For those who are perhaps a bit newer to me, THIS is where you’ll find out why my blog and brand is Pootles, it’s a cute story!

But over the last year, after those first couple of weeks of not really knowing where to go, I formulated a plan in my head pretty rapidly.

I wanted to reach out to people who would enjoy my projects and be inspired to pick up inks and stamps and get themselves crafting again, but I also wanted to demystify crafting. I think it’s too easy to look at something and say ‘I couldn’t make that’ thinking it too complicated, or too difficult, or just too time consuming.

My videos are deliberately unedited (aside from believing in total honesty – bloopers and all), mostly to prove that a project really does only take a few minutes to complete.

And just because they’re quick and simple doesn’t mean that they’re not beautiful. I’m quite proud of my projects and I love that every day people all over the world are pinning them onto pinterest or leaving me a message here or on facebook. I think all crafters suffer from IsItGoodEnoughItis and having someone leave a message is a little reassurance in what sometimes feels like a solitary hobby.

I also wanted to build a team of crafters too, and I’m beyond delighted that as of today, I have 50 demonstrators in my direct team, and over 70 in our whole downline! This is awesome! What a brilliant group of crafters. We all get on so well, and the shared love of crafting, plus mutual enthusiasm for one another’s projects is the tombow multipurpose adhesive that holds us together (oh that was such a bad joke, I’m sorry).

So this year has been a crazy rollercoaster. As those of you will have read last week, I earned the Incentive Trip to Madeira a few weeks ago. That was something that I would never have thought possible a year ago. 6 months ago, it was on my goal sheet and it didn’t occur to me that I wouldn’t achieve it (I’m nothing if not determined), but a year ago? And this week I attained the coveted status of Rising Star. Something achieved by gaining a certain level of sales and mentoring a number of my team to their first promotions, and I’m so pleased to be one of only 2 people in the UK to have ever achieved it!

And this team around me. I’m ridiculously proud of them all. So many of them are building their own teams, even those who’ve joined in the last few weeks are already out there hosting parties, sharing their creations and even recruiting! They’re gaining their own promotions too, and that makes me so delighted for them.

I hope that my own 12 month story will be an inspiration to them, but also to you. Whether you’re a new demonstrator yourself, I know of so many ladies overseas who’ve joined SU, or if you’re considering joining.

It may be only a couple of days before the end of Sale a Bration, but look what I did in 12 months.

I shall leave you with my card today. Not a spot of stamping whatsoever on it, because at this point, I’ll share that before I joined Stampin’ Up, I’d never picked up a rubber stamp or ink pad in my life.

Honest to goodness truth!

And this was the kind of card I used to make, back in the day. Punches and Paper were my tools of choice. But wow, am I a stamper now *stares at enormous collection of stamps*

Sam x