Craftsy crazy

My wonderful sister gave me two Craftsy classes as a birthday present last year, and since then I've thrown myself into it with enthusiasm. I bought some others for myself and got one from my father as a Christmas present.

Craftsy sells patterns and craft supplies as well as the classes, but the classes are the distinctive feature of Craftsy. Each includes hours of video instruction, often downloads of patterns or instructions, and ongoing support from the teacher in answering student questions. You can also upload photos of your own projects based on the techniques in that class. The video class format wasn't one I necessarily thought I'd like as I am a fan of book learning, but it has been much better than I expected. The Craftsy platform has a few quirks but is generally robust and makes things easy to follow. I love the ability to add your own bookmarks to the videos.

They've got an excellent selection of quilting, knitting, crochet, cooking, cake decorating and sewing classes and they've recently dramatically increased the number of fine arts and photography courses they offer too. They are adding new courses all the time. I have to remind myself that I don't actually have enough time, energy or talent to do all of the courses that appeal.

I've gone a bit wild with the free mini-classes as a result. I may have enrolled in... let's just say 'quite a few' and leave it at that.  I mean, free!! How could you not? Even if you did have willpower.

I particularly like the free cake decorating classes, as I have a lot of interest in cake decorating but am realistic enough to know I will never buy the supplies or take the proper time to get into it as a serious hobby. So buying a full class would be a waste, but I'm loving watching hours of free video on fondant and buttercream techniques, daydreaming about cakes I will never ever decorate in real life. Bliss.