A 17-year-old teenager from Lancashire is making nearly £15,000 a month with his personalised sticker business - thanks to a craft kit he got for Christmas from his mum. Caelan McDonald was given a £150 Cricut Joy - a digital drawing, cutting and printing machine - for Christmas two years ago by mum Karen Newsham, 49. He started printing transfers which he stuck on glassware and acrylic - and when he shared them on Facebook he started getting commissions for personalised items.
At the start of 2024 he was selling around 200 personalised items a month - featuring the transfers he made at home - working three hours a day after college. He's quit school - investing in huge industrial printers - and since July he's sold £74,000 of goods on TikTok shop and other platforms. Caelan's best seller this Christmas is a bauble featuring personalised angel wings, and last year it was snow globe tumblers. The lad - who works 16 hour days six days a week - is on track to make £100,000 worth of sales by the end of the financial year, he says. Caelan, from Lancaster, said: 'It's 100% the best Christmas present I ever got - it's the gift that keeps on giving. I never imagined it would get to this point. 'If you'd have told me last year that this would happen I'd have just laughed. It kind of started accidentally. 'In June I thought 'I'll just give it a try', and it's gone crazy. Now I'm so busy I hardly ever stop. 'The last few months have gone so fast it feels like they've been about two seconds. I just invest everything back into the business, but it's nice to be able to update my phone or iPad when I want or need to.' Karen, who works in hospitality, said: 'I'm incredibly proud of him, and so glad he's followed his own journey. I worried and wanted him to stay in education, but he was very unhappy and spending hours travelling in the cold when he wanted to be workin