Photo: Crocheted Stones is just one of the many craft classes to explore on Creativebug. Image courtesy Creativebug.

 

Looking for a fun gift idea to make for mom this Mother’s Day? Grand County Library District (GCLD) has just what you need.

Creativebug is GCLD’s fabulous (and free) online resource for high-quality arts and crafts instructional videos. You’ll discover more than 1,000 award-winning classes for makers of all ages, interests, and experience levels.

Creativebug has classes on drawing, painting, sewing, knitting, crochet, quilting, baking and more. There are also lots of exciting projects for kids, like galaxy slime, manga drawing, and dreamcatchers. All classes are taught by experts, with new classes added every day. There are even courses on starting your own business or building your creative brand.

In addition to classes, Creativebug has an “Inspiration Feed” where members can view photos of projects that other members have made or you can share photos of your own. Creativebug’s online forum and community galleries are a fun place to chat with other creators.

 You’ll also find a pattern library filled with hundreds of patterns, instructions, templates, and recipes for all of Creativebug’s projects and classes.

 For me, the hardest part about using Creativebug is deciding which project to make. I spent over an hour just browsing the catalog of classes before I could even narrow down which class I wanted to take!

I finally settled on Crocheted Stones. Don’t ask me why. There probably isn’t a more useless project on the whole site, but I instantly fell in love with the delicate, lacy crochet-covered stones in the photo. The class required a basic knowledge of simple crochet stitches, which I have, so I dove right in.

The instructor for this course was fabulous. She explained everything she was doing in clear, easy to follow steps, with a close-up view of every step of the process. The downloadable pattern was easy to follow, too. By the end of the afternoon, I had a beautiful, crochet-covered stone to display among my houseplants. Now I want to make more!

 I’ve even started a list of the other classes I want to take in the future (Creativebug has a watchlist feature, so you can save the classes you want to take later). Next up, I think I’ll try the art journaling class or make an altered book. And if I get really brave, I might even try to learn to knit. Wish me luck!

If you’d like to join the fun, simply visit www.gcld.org and click on the “eBooks & Learning Tools” tab.  Scroll through the alphabetized list of resources until you find Creativebug and click on the blue “Creativebug Login” link.

You’ll need a current GCLD library card number to access this resource, so if you don’t have one or if your card is expired, just send an email to cardsignup@gcld.org or call 970-887-9411, ext. 100. We’ll need your first and last name, phone number, email address, and home library preference to get you set up. Time to get creative!