Craftsy Becomes Bluprint

If you've been a student with Craftsy, you've already heard the news that Craftsy has become Bluprint (and dang, it kills me to not put an E in bluprint) but you may have questions about what this means as a purchaser of my classes and other classes on Craftsy as well as  the subscription program.



The subscription based Bluprint has been run separately from Craftsy for quite some time, though it originally started out as the Craftsy Unlimited plan. Abruptly, after the poorly handled changes in Craftsy's pattern designer marketplace, the powers that be (under NBCUniversal) announced that it would no longer use the Craftsy brand and all services would be offered under the Bruprint name.

If you read the woes of the majority of designers and pattern sellers as they scrambled to set up web shops a few days before Christmas as their patterns were removed from Craftsy, you know that these changes have been quite painful for the creative instructors and designers that had been working with Craftsy. Changes have been rolling out far longer for instructors than most Craftsy/Bluprint customers realize. They have been incredibly frustrating, confusing, and for most instructors, handled in the silence of professional courtesy.

This has left students in a pickle as well, as some classes no longer have an instructor answering their questions in their "forever classes." After seeing their income slashed by 80% on average, or their extensive class materials and even printed patterns given out for free, some instructors have parted ways with the arrangement. Their classes are still available, but the instructor gets nothing from them.

As instructors, we have been told that questions asked by subscription customers will not be shown to us, as if not having to answer students' questions makes up for lack of compensation. For the most part, we are instructors, teachers, people who share....we don't want to leave students hanging with their questions. Though we are also business people, parents, spouses, individuals with bills to pay.

I can't answer for other instructors, or even the powers that be at Bluprint, but what I do know is that I continue to answer questions, both within the class platform (assuming they show the question to me) as well as through my website, Facebook, and email. I do my best to provide the information without having to answer the same question thousands of times over, via my posts here and videos.

Yes, there can be thousands of the same question. Last year was the last time I was given a full student count and at that time it was 27,000 students for just the first class! Since then, they won't give us a student count or other basic metrics, citing that their status as a publicly traded company, we might be able to somehow calculate company earnings and conspire to do some illegal insider trading.

Some instructors have thrived under the new arrangements, with special types of classes and shows, and new instructors have also been recruited who have no expectations from how it was in the past. If it works for them and their students, fabulous!

In the meantime, if you own classes purchased outright, it appears you will continue to have 'forever access' to the classes, though you may or may not have an actively participating instructor.  If you are taking classes as a subscription member, take advantage of all the answered questions that have come before you, as well as read the class materials. There's a wealth of information in these classes already.

If you are having trouble finding your forever classes on the Bluprint platform, clicking on the "shop" tab will take you to the re-branded old Craftsy site and your library of classes.

For my classes, I will continue to answer student questions if they are shown to me in my "Instructor's Dashboard." That is completely under the control of the Bluprint web gurus. There are far too many questions and answers to be able to search for new ones as they come up in the lessons.

While many things have changed in the time that I first started to work on my first Quilting with Rulers class with Craftsy, I am grateful that they took a chance in this rather unknown and less than photogenic quilting instructor to bring my ruler work technique on a stationary sewing machine to the masses. I was the only one actively teaching it then and Westalee was still in the process of finalizing their ruler foot prototype. Thank goodness for Janome and their ruler foot.

Changes that have happened in the industry also make it possible for instructors to create video content on their own that can rival what we could do before with these big professional studios. One of my disappointments with my classes with Craftsy was being left out of the editing process. So much content was cut out!

In March, I will ramp up video production to produce my new class on free motion quilting and I'm excited (and slightly terrified) to control all the content and production.

In the meantime, take advantage of my Facebook Live videos at AmyQuilts as well as my YouTube videos. By all means, watch my Craftsy/Bluprint classes, it brings me a few pennies and you get a well-produced class with plenty of content.

If you have additional questions about Craftsy classes, access to your class library, or your Bluprint subscription, check directly with them via this link as they know their platform and changes best.

How about you? Are you enjoying the changes to Bluprint? Are you enjoying my recent live FB videos (even if you just catch the replay)? How have my classes and videos helped you? Let me know in the comments. I love the conversation.

19 comments:

  1. I have pretty much stopped using Craftsy (Bluprint). I do enjoy Facebook live and youtube.

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  2. I've also stopped purchasing classes. I don't like the subscription model; I prefer to choose classes when/if I want them and don't want to be stuck paying when I don't see something I'm interested in. Amy, you were the first online person showing how to use rulers, and you were very supportive of people like me who were anxiously awaiting the Bernina ruler foot (which is fantastic, BTW!). I love using rulers, and I so appreciate your help and advice.

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  3. I agree with Sandy. I don't like the subscription model either. I think that is probably the way they intend to go so that you pay regularly but end up paying more than purchasing the one-off at a time. I loved the classes - and those with my favourite teachers, I eventually purchased the sets (almost). I'd happened on your blog via Leah Day and when you had the classes I jumped in! I love using rulers and having a beaten up Janome (Jezebel - she's very temperamental) I have since made some almost decent quilts!
    I think they dropped the e so that when you google the name you don't come up with architectural designs - but then I automatically type the e and get the designs anyway. LOL! I did prefer Craftsy. Not sure where this new company is heading but I certainly don't pop on there as much - I think I have enough lessons that I need now. Very sad when a good little company is eaten up by a bigger corporation. Anyway I really thank you for this post - very interesting and very informative. I'll continue to pop on to FB even though I don't get to catch live sessions.

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  4. Thanks for the post, Amy...very informative. Yep, i was one of those small scale designers. While they retained me, they took 5 patterns off. I did not do anything before Christmas other than getting some photos off their site. Went on Etsy but I doubt that that is going to work for me. Do not understand where they are going with their site. Once they open it again for Patterns, how are they going to monitor content...have not heard anything more from them, so completely in the dark. As for bluprint...don’t like the subscription model and have not signed up for that. It’s a pity...really liked Craftsy and have purchased a number of classes in the past (yours included!)

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  5. Under the Craftsy banner I purchased 46 classes, the majority are quilting classes. however, I do not like the changes that Bluprint has made and doubt very much if I will purchase their classes. It is a shame that they ruined a good thing.

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  6. Congrats on the decision to produce your own videos. I'm headed that way too :-)

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  7. Yep. I agree. Amy, you were my first introduction to ruler quilting and I bought all your Craftsy classes. You are a fabulous teacher and the skills I learned from you are evident all my quilts. I’ve been disgusted with Bluprint, even before I learned how they treated their teachers and designers. It makes me really sad as they were my ‘go to’ for purchasing quilting supplies and kits for many years. I live in a really small rural community with very limited availability of fabric and virtually no notions. Amy, be encouraged, you have many friends/followers out here in quilting land who love your work and appreciate you. Stay the course.

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  8. I loved Crafty and went there often to purchases supplies and patterns. I've tried to like Bluprint - but I don't and I will not be going there again. I've decided to buy through Etsy.

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  9. I agree with all of the above.I have over 100 Craftsy classes & tried Bluprint free for a couple days. But quickly realized it was not for me. Since they aren't offering any new quilting classes I probably won'y be buying any for the foreseeable future. It is a shame that they ruined a very good class experience for many. But if I can keep my classes, then Im happy. But shame on them for caving into a big guy!

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  10. Thank you for providing the info on the effect on the instructors of the total conversion to Bluprint. I think many of us knew of the impact on the pattern vendors, but not on the classes. I was sure from the moment NBCUniversal bought out Craftsy and introduced the subscription service that things would probably not turn out well. I did succumb to one of the subscription deals, but will not be renewing. And I'm taking the promise of continued access to purchased classes with a grain of salt. Good luck to you with the future videos. I don't do Facebook and have a 30 year old Bernina for which there will probably never be a ruler foot, but I did benefit from your earlier free motion quilting tips.

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    1. You can use a Westalee ruler foot on older Berninas with the help of the Bernina adapter shank.

      So far, they keep saying folks can buy individual classes. In fact, they are giving the option to get individual "forever" classes free as an incentive to some to sign up for the subscription! Which is totally weird in my book.

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  11. Thank you for helping to clear up some of this confusion. I own both your classes on Craftsy. The change has been forced on us.

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  12. Thanks for explaining the changes. I don't like the subscription service so rarely ever log on. I have purchased DVDs of a couple of the classes I owned on Craftsy because I don't trust that I'll always have access to them. It's been very disappointing and I feel sorry for the teachers and designers who have been impacted by it.

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    1. I hadn't thought of that, but did wonder if lifetime meant exactly that. I have purchased books from those that have written them - Amy - you need to write a book!!! xx

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    2. Kerry, you are totally right. I am hoping that writing the book, and making the projects to go with it, is one of the things I can really focus on and get done in my new studio.

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    3. Woot woot! Husband says how many books do you need - well . . . . here's another one for my list then! Great!

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  13. Missing Craftsy. Don't like Bluprint AT All!! Refuse to subscribe. Miss you guys. Now if I can just find those classes I bought...

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  14. I won't be buying the subscription service either. NBC has done this before with other industries and failed both times. I think they will fail with Bluprint as well. I am one of the designers that was 'privileged' to stay on the pattern site, with a huge reduction in patterns left, but sales have been zero since the poorly handled change. Next time they do a DVD offer, I think I'll take advantage of that, since I think eventually all the videos I've bought won't be accessible.

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  15. Thank you so much for this update. I haven’t signed up for Bluprint, mainly because I can’t even see a class synopsis without signing up. I love your Rulers class on Craftsy, and am delighted to see your integrity as a teacher shine through as your priority. You were a “friend” to help me before Janome 9400 ruler foot came out, and I truly appreciated that. I look forward to more tutorials in whatever format works best for you.

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