Well, it's finally happened. First, it was Craftsy, now Bluprint. Formally known as Craftsy, Bluprint has closed its doors forever.
My husband told me this would likely happen and he's often right about these sorts of things. Back in 2017, our beloved Craftsy was bought by media behemoth, NBC Universal Cable Entertainment, which is in turn owned by media goliath, Comcast –one of the five groups that control pretty much everything you see, hear, and read in the US. According to my husband, giant corporate cultures don't often mix with and support small, early-stage creative companies like Craftsy had been. Unfortunately, he was right..
Prior to the acquisition, Craftsy had been a terrific platform that allowed independent creators such as ourselves to distribute patterns both paid and free. The focus of the site was purely crafts and mainly sewing which was terrific. They produced high-quality instructional videos and classes and these often complimented and even supported patterns posted by independent creators. There was a great sense of community, everyone knew everyone, and Craftsy grew from nothing to a pretty large platform.
After the NBCUniversal acquisition, Craftsy quickly began to change. They started to add non-craft-related content such as gardening and woodworking –which are great pastimes too but the focus went away from sewing in this attempt to appeal to this broader audience. Because of this new, wider focus, the color scheme for the site changed from a lively pink and pastel format to something obviously conceived by a corporate committee.. dark blue and black.. if you can believe it, presumably to be more neutral. At the same time, staff numbers at Bluprint climbed to something like 130 which is hard to sustain from a website.
Again to support this move away from solely a “craft” focus, they changed the name from the catchy “Craftsy” to a misspelled Blueprint or Bluprint which didn't' help much with name recognition among loyal Craftsy readers and viewers.
However, the real death of the platform started in 2018 when they tried to force everyone onto monthly subscriptions. Prior to that, the site had been extremely popular since, users could buy individual classes on a topic or project that interested them and supposedly own that class forever with nothing else to pay. The new Bluprint model was to try to get users to pay each and every month for access to the service. You can obviously see why they would prefer this, but users absolutely hated it and traffic to the site dropped rapidly.
Bluprint eventually saw the light and relented in this push to subscriptions only by again allowing the “buy and own forever” model but the damage was done.
The decline of the service was further accelerated when for some reason, they stopped independent creators such as ourselves from being able to post new patterns on the site. Prior to that, we had been sending 10s of thousands of potential users to the site on a monthly basis and this all went to pretty much zero.
In any case, going forward we will be moving the few patterns we were still hosting on Bluprint over to our page on Payhip. One of the nice things about the Payhip platform is it allows us to distribute free sewing patterns, which we always love to do, while offering the option to contribute something for the pattern. Basically, you can choose your own price, which we think is great.
I'd ask for our readers patience as we do this. It will take us a couple of days and we will keep everyone informed of our progress.
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Yes, because if the transitions I have lost ALL OF THE CLASSES that I had purchased! Have emailed customer service and texted them and received no response. Very angry about this. I will check out your new platform. Thanks for the article.
I went to the Craftsy website and my classes, and content was all there… There was a point when Bluprint and Craftsy went dark for a bit – but not now (Halloween ’21). Wonder if this post might be a little old.
Unfortunately, because of this changing I list all my classes and videos. And no one helped me to get them Back, they just made a new account ????
How frustrating for you.
This awful!!! Hard to trust thees people! If you can’t stand by your word, don’t offer it!!!
Where are all of my saved files patterns etc!
I too am frustrated with the new Craftsy. I had purchased a Jinny Breyer BOM kit that included lifetime access to the instructional video. After many emails back and forth they finally sent me a link to the videos but I cannot watch them unless I pay $79.99 for a yearly subscription to their site!
I am so frustrated. I had both paid and free content on Bluprint that I now can’t access since it returned to Craftsy. I am not paying a monthly fee! Everything wants a monthly fee these days, I much prefer a one off payment. What is illegal though is that content I already paid for is no longer available to me. Not happy. At least one of them was a So Sew Easy pattern but I can’t even tell you what others I had, they were all on the website and they seemed ‘safe’ there. Reading through comments I see we were emailed late last year telling us to download anything. Great, I missed the window as I had a dying family member. Either way, what was paid for is ours and we should be able to access it.
I’m furious with the situation. I had over a hundred classes, most of them purchased in Craftsy. I also bought patterns there. It represents a big investment. I joined Bluprint for a year on a special offer with a different account. I could still use my Craftsy account at that time. I dropped my Bluprint subscription after the year was up That was OK. Now I am forced to subscribe to Craftsy to access MY classes and the App is down.. This is so wrong and I would definitely support going for a class action lawsuit.
You still have access. I do. I bought around 90 classes
Hi Cindy,
I can no longer get access to my Craftsy classes via the app. All my personal information is gone. What to do? I am absolutely furious about this! I bought those classes (quite a few!) with the understanding that it would be lifetime access. At this point I don’t care if I can interact with the instructors or not, I just want access to the classes I bought and paid for. Any info would be much appreciated.
I don’t have access as well. Says the app is down. Server down. Allll those classes that I paid for POOF gone!
Bluprint gave us until August 31 2020 to download what you wanted. I doubt we can Now load anything in October. Sorry.
It’s staying – as Craftsy. https://www.mybluprint.com/
I also cannot download the classes with the Internet Download Manager. Every time I try, it says it completed, but when I go see if it copied correctly, all I get is an odd bluprint page telling me I need to update my browser (using Chrome) and other nonsense. Perhaps I am not setting the options correctly?
I am in the same boat and cannot download any of my paid for patterns this is really bad i purchased these in good faith
Don’t despair, Joanna. The new Craftsy owners have assured us that they are working hard to restore all of our class and pattern purchases. I get the impression they had to rebuild everything after taking over from Bluprint. Keep checking your account.
I must be setting the options to download the classes wrong. When I download and it says it’s complete, it just takes me to some weird version of the bluprint web, not to a downloaded video
I know and understand the classes were very important to most but what I loved most was the fabric – It was very affordable and beautiful colors and easy kits. Does anyone know of any websites that are similar to Bluprint where i can purchase fabric? In Canada a yard of fabric is $20.00 so this was half the cost with the shipping included!
Have you tried fabric.com? Great selection, and you can find bargins. I don’t know about their shipping to Canada.
Have you tried Connecting Threads?
For those of us who have Apple Products, PLEASE, let me know what you have done to download your classes… I have a MacBook Pro laptop + the Apple iPad + my mobile phone is an Apple iPhone. Thanks for your help!
I have a Macbook Pro and I consider myself fairly computer savvy. Try as I might I could not find a good way to download my classes. I resorted to downloading Internet Download Manager on my work computer and using that with great success. Sorry Jacqueline, I wish I had a better answer for you.
You can download your forever classes by using the Bluprint app. From what I have been told by BluPrint, each class takes alot of memory so I can’t imagine how much you will need for an entire class. I have many many forever classes but little wifi so can hardly download a pattern to print much less anything else. I have no idea what I am going to do and hope they honor what they said, that they are trying to get a copy of each forever class to each of us who purchased it. I am not in high hopes since no one from the corporation has said anything since the original letter in May saying they are going to close. I can’t even go to the library and use their wifi to download because they are closed because of the virus!
Thanks to those trying to help with downloading classes. I have a Mac so I cannot use Internet Download Manager, but I am trying Free Download Manager. The problem is it is downloading the classes in 9 second segments, and also I have to play the entire lesson before it can download the class. Is Internet Download Manager downloading many 9 second segments or one larger .ts file per lesson? Do you have to play the entire lesson before downloading? Thanks.
Internet Download Manager does do it in segments, but it stitches them together seamlessly at the end; it is not necessary to play the whole lesson before downloading either; thank goodness. With 144 classes that would have taken forever! Hope that helps.
I got this email the other day and really was interested in getting the Racerback Tank t-shirt pattern. I thought it might still be available at bluprint, but couldn’t find it. I will be patient and hope it is transferred to payhip (a great site, by the way).
HI, I have been trying to download my classes using the Internet Download Manager and for four days I have sat there doing each class , (13(0 It has taken me for every and I still have around 44 more to go? I am I doing this wrong because I have seen comment on how it was so quick and easy? Please any help would be appreciated. I am using Chrome, IDM and saving it to a external hard drive? Thank you! I have also found that when I went back to look at the saved classes there is no order to them. They are all saved with same title so I had to go back and figure out what was what? I am do desperate not to keep trying. Thank you again.
When you go to download the next segment (there are typically 7) REFRESH the web page and that will give you the current segment title.
To keep them in correct segment order I suggest renaming the beginning of each segment just after “bluprint\” but before the name of the segment.
For example instead of bluprint\firstsegmentname, I add “1_” so it would be “bluprint\1_firstsegmentname”. The next would then be “bluprint\2_secondsegmentname”, etc.
Is it a pain to click into the file name to add the number and underscore? Yep, but easier than sifting through files later. I also make a separate folder for each class and name the folder after the class.
Then after downloading all segments (carefully numbered) and associated resources, I move them into that folder. Then on to the next class, repeat.
Can you please help me with Internet Download Manager – which has been purchased and installed properly? I go to my Craftsy Class, I click on the first thing (like Introduction) but I do not get anything in the right hand corner which says Download This Video. Where do I find that or what can I do to get the Download Manager to start working?
Thank you. I am desperate to get my 120+ classes downloaded before they disappear forever.
I logged in to mybluprint.com and was able to access my library of patterns. So log in and download your patterns to your computer or save them to your cloud service to access later. Today is Saturday, June 13, 2020
Mary, it’s not just the patterns we paid for! It was the classes + the whole pkg deal per class! That’s a lot of mommies for patterns only. I have read what you printed of you emails. I only got one saying there were closing. I emailed them 3 times & NEVER got ant responses back from them. There is Not even a number to contact them. They Never reached out with anyway to download our bought classes! Like I said in a reply previously, this Whole thing is LUDICROUS! They have our monies, but NO HELP at the end of the companies existence! All of us are Very Angry! They gave NO HELP at all!
Here is the email I got from Bluprint
Bluprint Unsubscribe
Sat, May 30, 2:29 AM
to me
Thank you for the past 10 years.
Bluprint
We recently shared the disappointing news that Bluprint will be closing over the next few months. You can see the letter to the Bluprint community here and posted below. We are immensely thankful for the opportunity to have supported you and your passion over the past decade.
We know there are many questions and we will have more information to share soon. Please note that we will provide a way for those of you who have purchased classes to receive a copy of the classes you purchased. For example, we’re working on a solution to give you an extended period to download your purchased classes.
Current subscribers still have access to classes, patterns, and course materials, however we will stop accepting new subscribers and orders for individual classes, patterns and supplies on May 31 at 11:59 pm EDT.
Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work through these important details. If you have questions, please use the Contact Us feature on our website.
May 24, 2020
To our Bluprint community,
This is not an easy letter to write. For the last ten years, my colleagues and I have worked tirelessly on Craftsy and then Bluprint. When we started the business in 2010, our goal was to provide passionate enthusiasts access to the world’s best experts and make it easier to learn new skills. Our hope was to make people’s lives better through creativity, and we’ve been honored to serve millions of customers over the last decade.
I am disappointed to inform you that Bluprint will be closing over the next few months. Like so many customers, instructors, designers, and employees, I am devastated by this news. Please know that our team is working quickly to finalize details, and we will provide more information soon.
For now, I wanted to let you know that we are looking at various options to allow those of you who have purchased individual classes to receive a copy of your classes. This includes individual classes purchased with own forever credits. We are also planning to issue prorated refunds for paid subscribers based on the last day our service will be available, which will be communicated when that date is finalized in the near future.
On behalf of all the Craftsy/Bluprint employees, I want to express our gratitude and appreciation to you for being with us on this journey.
If you have questions, please contact us and we will do our best to respond as quickly as possible.
Thank you and please stay safe and healthy.
Sincerely,
Bluprint
John Levisay
CEO, Bluprint (Craftsy)
Craftsy: Make something that means something
Questions or comments? Visit our Help Center.
Bluprint | 999 18th Street | Suite 240 | Denver, CO 80202 / Copyright © 2020 Bluprint All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you are a member of Bluprint.
Wish I got this email last year. Didn’t get the info therefore didn’t get to download anything.
I would like to know how can I access the classes that I pay for also I recently pay for a premium manual membership that offers me access to all the classes that you have. Please let me know how can I get my money and classes. Sincerely Ingrid Aguilar. Note: initially I was kind as Ingrid Garcia.
I’m not computer literate, I hope I can obtain a copy of my classes from Bluprint. I find it irritating that they would ask us to download classes we paid for.
Hi Arlene~ I’m in the same boat with you. I am not only computer illiterate but my lap top died a few months ago and I can’t afford another one right now. I am accessing bluprint via app or website using either my phone or my Kindle Fire. I can see all of my classes but are they going to go away soon? I’m really upset because I would only purchase classes when they were on sale even though I knew I wouldn’t have the time to take them until later. They were supposed to be forever classes right? So I thought I could take my time taking the classes. Now what?
Hope this will all work out somehow…???
Cindy
I tried to redeem my “own forever” coupons and even before the announced date/time coupons ceased working. I emailed three times in the last few weeks with no response. I’m out three “own forever” coupons I paid for and I have no idea how to download what was already paid for. Over the past several years I have invested over $500 in “own forever” classes. I’m hoping there will be forthcoming infomation about how to download those. I just have to eat $60 in coupons. SUCH a disappointment!!!
What is the name of the creator of this Internet Download Manager? There are several with similar names.
That is its name – Internet Download Manager.
I found the software and installed it. Downloaded two classes so far. I was looking for the name of the author/creator, not the name of the software. At first I thought you were talking about a Chrome extension.
and there were several with a similar names. Thanks.
Is there an easy way of downloading my pattern library, or will I have to download one pattern at a time? (not videos)
I downloaded all my patterns last week. It is a one at a time process. I hope you got to download yours. I found that if I started at the last page of downloads, each one downloaded moves to the top of the first page! And make sure you click the button on the left side to view all patterns because some are archived and don’t show if you don’t do that.
Thank you Nancy. I have been downloading them one at a time. LONG process, but I don’t want to miss any.
I had ordered and paid for fabric and quilt kits prior to the shut down at midnight on May 31, 2020. They have my money and I don’t have my product. There’s no company update on status about pending orders. Any advice?
I have the same problem. I emailed them but have not yet received a response!
If you paid by credit card, contact them.
My May 31 order just shipped yesterday. It will be arriving today.
Put our classes on YouTube!!! You are under legal obligation and should honor what we have agreed to in those contracts. I personally never received notification of this closing.
The notification came from Bluprint and if I hadn’t been paying attention, I would have thrown it in the delete without opening page because it looked like just another junk mail on my gmail promotions page.. Go back through your deleted emails and you will probably find it. Bluprint gave information for how to download your patterns in that email.
I didn’t read anywhere on how to download my classes from Bluprint itself. All the information I am getting has been from here. However, to us computer illiterates, all the instructions I have read have sounded like gobbly-goop to me. No children here to explain what to do on the computer. LOL I have gone to the websites recommended, but didn’t know how to answer the questions. I appreciate you all trying to teach me.
By the way, make sure that you write down all the classes you have paid for. Just in case that Bluprint does send us CDs of our paid-for classes, you want to make sure that you get ALL of them. This especially true for all of you that have paid for a lot of classes.
I never got this notice either! So explain just How to Download, Please!
And there is nothing in my deleted emails as well! I sent them 3 emails with no responses at all! This should Not be this hard! Bluprint is ripping us all off! I spent a lot of monies myself! This whole thing is LUDICROUS! Talk about stealing, WOW!
I had removed the Bluprint app because I also wasn’t willing To shell out for a monthly membership. I wonder if the original designers and creators of crafts he could come back and do a similar platform. They had a diamond in the rough and the let some corporate monster cut it until they went to far. Just so you know, I am still able to access the videos that I own forever. That’s something.
This is really hard for me. My only experience with people who didn’t like Bluprint is in these comments, but I have never understood why a subscription wasn’t desirable? Because I spent over $600 on Craftsy classes, and Bluprint charged $70-$80 a year with 12 free Own Forever classes. It was a total steal. When I got a few days notice they were closing, I had to binge purchase almost a hundred classes I need access to. I can watch Creativebug free with my library card and it is nowhere near as good at emphasizing the fundamentals of sewing, though they are great at showing me a project quickly and getting me excited. With Bluprint I learned to knit, sew, cook, garden, design my own patterns, dye yarn, print fabric, and use a serger and coverstitch machine. And there was waaaaay more to go. All the best. . . 🙁
For all of you who are wondering about your classes, try this: I have been using Internet Download Manager to retrieve my class videos and it has worked quite well. It has a 30-day trial which should give you lots of time to get your classes saved unless your list is in the 100s. The amount of time it takes to download each video lesson depends on the length of the lesson or the file size you select and your internet speed. For the average 30 minute lesson and a large file size, it takes 1-3 minutes per video. A slower connection will, of course, mean a slower download. Once you download and install the program, you will need to install the browser extension for the browser you intend to use. For Chrome, it is easily found in the Chrome webstore. It installed easily, automatically enabled itself and was ready to use. I did find, however, that I needed to “Allow” it to access file URLs. This is located in the extension’s details in your browser extension menu. Once you have your program and extension installed and configured, you are ready to download. Open one class and start the first video lesson playing. In the upper right corner, you should see a small button that says “Download this Video”. In Chrome, it is green. Select it and you could see a list of file sizes. I used the largest file size for quality videos but what you select may depend on how much storage space you have on your device. Now you should get a dialog box with the URL being downloaded, a category (video, program, document….), where the video will be saved to with the file name (which can be changed. I added numbers to the file names to keep the videos in order.) and a space for a description (optional). Once this info is set the way you want it, click “Start Download “and off you go. Once complete, you will be notified by another dialog box which you can close. Go to the next lesson and start again. It’s not perfect because I can’t find a way to batch download one entire class at one time but it is workable. I just downloaded a 10 lesson class in 10-15 minutes while typing this message. Good luck and go save those classes!! ????
I tried the downloader..didnt work for me!!!
Thanks VickieP for the instructions. Unfortunately Internet Download Manager is a Windows only program. Does anyone know of a Mac program that can be used? I tried Free Download Manager but when I add the URL of my class, it downloads the webpage rather than the video.
Thank you so much for this step-by-step instructional. I’m terribly sad to see BluPrint go, but it’s so much easier knowing that I will absolutely always be able to access the classes I paid for!
Hello Vickie,
what program did you use to play the class in your computer?
I downloaded the class but windows media is not able to play it. VCL and Itunes not to play it either. I believe the extension of bluprint is vpe, I haven’t been able to find a program that could play the classes.
thank you for your help.
Hi Brenda,
I’m using Films and TV which is a Microsoft App and it’s playing the files fine. Mine all downloaded as .TS files which seems to be common enough that it’s recognised by that app and played fine. It won’t play on a DVD player or Blu-ray, but my Xbox One will also play them. I’m now looking at converting them to MP4 so the Blu Ray can cope with them off a flashdrive.
Hi Brenda,
My classes downloaded as a .ts type and Windows Media plays them great. I’ve never heard of .vpe so I have no idea how to help you. Maybe someone else reading this can help???
Thank you Vickie, so finally I was able to play the videos using windows media player just fine. I think I was clicking on a unfinished file but anyway I am good all TS files and I downloaded at least 7 conpllete classes so far. It took me a few hours but the 30 day trial is enough.
My new Dell laptop uses Microsoft Movies & TV by default to play these .ts videos. They also open/play with Windows Media Player. One plus of the Movies & TV app is you can click on the right or left and go to the next video. You do need to create a folder for each class and save all its lessons in this folder.
I have not even been able to download my classes. I sent them an email but no one responded.
Though I had to fiddle with it a bit, your suggestion gave me huge piece of mind. Using ID makes me feel so much better because I added up over $1k of “own forever” classes over the past decade. Once before I paid for own forever classes from a site and they went belly up without even sending an email. I lost all the content. So THANK YOU Vickie for letting us know of a way to download our classes (I have so many to download I’m going to have to set up a schedule, lol.
Hello Vickie, I have purchased and downloaded Internet Download Manager. When I go to the Bluprint website there is an icon at the top saying IDM integration module has access to this site. I have checked the IDM Configuration thing and it is all set up properly, but I cannot get (or find) the button that says Download this Video or anything green for Chrome when I start my video lessons. I have spent hours trawling the internet for help and simply cannot find anything which solves the problem. Do you have a solution? I am beginning to go slightly hysterical. Thank you!
They shouldn’t have tried to fix what was already working. Go figure…
I agree. It’s crazy when someone takes over something (whether an entire company or one person, put into in a position of power) that’s working great, and decides to change everything up, killing all hope of success in the process.
Thank you, VickieP. I am downloading all my files using Internet Download Manager. I couldn’t make it work with Opera but it works with google Chrome.
To Michelle, I used Internet Download Manager and set up the integration add on for Chrome. When I put on a Craftsy class and pressed play the add on would ask me if I wanted to download it. I could then choose what quality of download I wanted and it’d do it within a minute or so, a little longer for some. All files download as TS types and they played fine on my computer even without being connected to the internet. It does take time and you have to do each episode separately but in the end I got my over 100 classes on my separate HDD.
I did the download with internet download manager but it don’t download the class it only downloads the URL address and when you click on your downloaded class it just takes you back to the Bluprint site. That wont help if their site is no longer available??
I have been using Internet Download Manager to retrieve my class videos and it has worked quite well. I did find, however, that I needed to “Allow” it to access file URLs. This is located in the extension’s details in your browser extension menu.
me too..same thing. I did get a letter saying they were trying to figure out a way for members to do these download
Michelle, you need to allow the browser extension to access the URLs. Open your browsers extensions page. You may have to go through Settings. Find the extension for IDManager and open the settings (or Details) page for it. On that page you should see a toggle switch to turn on Allow Access to URLs. This will allow the program to download the class and not just the webpage. Good Luck!!!
This is a great tip! I only did a test recording of 2 minutes and it works perfectly. Thanks!
With the classes I purchased and never got all the way through, thinking I had them forever – now what. Do I get my money back??
Probably not.
When Bluprint can along I ceased to use the company as it was awkward, tedious, complicated and I did not want a subscription. Sad as this removes a place for independent designers and crafter’s. Anyone out brave enough to start another “Craftsy” in this very bad economy