Probably not unlike many of you, we have been hearing about Pinterest (the web’s hottest new social sharing site) A LOT lately! Well, we finally got around to joining and are already having lots of fun discovering inspiring images, craft ideas and other fun DIY finds.
After Rebeca and I attended the CHA Winter Conference last month, we asked our community of maillers on Facebook if they were on Pinterest and loving it. We got a mix of responses from “I love it!” to “Pin-who-what??” but overall, it sounds like lots of you are in the stage we’re in – trying it out, seeing what we can discover and still feeling a bit unsure of what it’s all about. We did do a little hunting before we joined and found that fans, friends and strangers had pinned nearly 150 images from our website already! (Click on an image to see it larger, and then click on it again to be taken to the webpage on which that image appears. A perfect way to store all those weaves you see on our website and want to make later!)
Let’s explore more together!
To join Pinterest, you must request an invitation using your email address. Your invite probably won’t come right away (it didn’t for us anyway) and once it does, you’ll need to use your Facebook or Twitter account to verify who you are. Don’t worry, this doesn’t connect your account (i.e. – your pins won’t automatically be posted.) Once you’re verified, you’ll be invited to choose some things you like to start following some folks and create some new boards. Pinterest boards can be themed in whatever way you like and are used to organize the things you like into groupings. We started out by making one for artistic inspiration, another for color inspiration, one just for fun and of course….one for chaimaille!
That’s when the fun really begins. You’ll be flooded with images related to your chosen subjects and you can start re-pinning them to your pin boards. You can also create your own pins using links from the internet. For example, you might have a board for recipes and another for future crafting ideas. When you come across a recipe or craft you want to try, you can pin them to one of your boards. Think of Pinterest as a handy way to come back to those sites or images that you come across and think “Ohhh, I gotta remember this!” We also have noticed lots of artists and crafters creating inspiration boards – lots of fun!
Yay! So glad it was helpful – we didn’t really know much about it until recently either and are still learning. Hope you enjoy it