Stampin Up demonstrator – Crafty Little Minx –  Princess Alice Hospice – Crafterthon

The last couple of weeks really sums up why I joined Stampin’ Up!

Just over 3 weeks ago I received an email asking if I could help with a volunteering day with a local charity, Princess Alice Hospice in Esher, Surrey.’Could you prepare a set of projects that could be made by 30 volunteers on the 16th November and sold at our Christmas Fair on Saturday 19th?” Yes I said quickly before I could change my mind ‘I’m sure that would be possible.

Now I have to point out that I’ve only  run monthly classes in my house or parties at customers homes and the maximum I’ve ever had in a class was 8 so this was a whole new territory for me. Thinking it would be a great opportunity to stretch myself I started off planning.

A week later I received a rather urgent call to say that due to logistical issues the venue was to be changed. ‘It’s now for 200 people to make in 2 afternoons at Heathrow!!!! ‘Can you still do it?’ Huge Gulps! Of course I can ……….

So in less than 6 days with a much liaising and help from my fellow Royal stampers team I managed to design, collect needed supplies, cut and prepare 34 projects for 200 people. Then last week with the help of 4 of my fellow demos and my fabulous downline, we got to show  them how to make boxes, cards and gifts all ready to sell. It was amazing! So a huge thank you and a  big Crafty Little Minx shout out to Pip Todman, Di Richardson, Sue Hookins, Hilary Wright & Theresa O’Connell AKA the Royal Stampers who all helped and generously donated their time of the Princess Alice Hospice who will receive the funds raised from the epic endevours of the DHL Express UK and Deutsche Post senior executives who made all of this!!! Everyone was amazing!

You might well wonder why I keep saying everything is amazing? Well on the first day we went to Heathrow, it was all quite busy, but once everyone was settled into their projects, my upline Pip Todman took five minutes out to undertake her first Facebook live event. It was brilliant, so on the second event I thought I would have a go and lets just say it might have been better if I had practised first as I quickly ran out of superlatives and everything ended up being ‘amazing’.(check it out on my Facebook page!)

Well ho hum you live and learn and I certainly learnt things about myself in those manic two weeks. Especially that at my age sleep deprivation sure catches up with you when you try and plan an event such as this and hold down a full time job!

The really inspiring part for me and one of the reasons I started running classes was the look of sheer joy on the faces of people who had never crafted before as they proudly showed their projects to their colleagues ‘I made that’ was echoing around the room and we sold a fair proportion of the ‘stock’ to the very individuals who had given their time to help

On the Saturday, we met at the Hospice and set up the stall and before the doors had even opened the volunteers from DHL were selling……

I have always been proud to be involved with Stampin Up! but linking in with this worthwhile initiative has taken me & my respect and love for my crafty family to a whole new level.

And finally the question I’m sure you have been thinking. How much did we raise?

Well at the latest count tonight we were at over £4,000 and still climbing as the few unsold items from the event are sold in the DHL UK head office. Wow!

If you want to know more about Princess Alice Hospice then follow the link by clicking their logo below

and if you want to donate to this wonderful organisation then that would be amazing!!