very pinteresting....

It is no secret that I am addicted to pinterest, being a visual person it is a much better way for me to keep my inspiration organised. I accidentally discovered this little trick, I'm not sure if everyone else already knows and I am just slow or if it will be useful to others, just in case though I thought I'd share....

So, first you need to go over to pinterest and sign up for an account and if you plan to become addicted then I suggest adding the pin it button to your bookmark bar (full instructions for that here). Then, go and surf the net until you spot something that catches your eye. Like this cool blanket from Paisley Jade. Now, when you make your pin, you should add some kind of a description, more often than not, there is some accompanying text with the image, use your mouse to highlight the text.....

Next, click on your pin it button on the bookmark bar of your browser...

A new window will pop up, select the image you want to pin...

A new window will open and the text that you previously highlighted will appear in the box - hurrah! Of course you could add something else to the box, if it is something for sale then the price is a good idea and the name of the seller etc. Or maybe notes for yourself, then click the Pin It button, once it has been pinned you will get a final window with the option to share on FB or twitter.

I use pinterest for numerous things such as...

• Montessori/eductional ideas to do with Ebi-kun
• Colours - I have boards with various colour combo's that I refer to when designing something
• Recipes, when I have tried it I add a note to say if it was good or a fail!
• Crafty & sewing inspiration - ideas, techniques, sometimes there is a certain element in an image, say a style of bag handle or the fabric combo used which draws me to the image, I might not even like the finished product, just part of it.
• Seasonal inspiration, Halloween, Christmas etc.
• Research ideas, I collected lots of images of little houses before making the little house stamps.
• Gift ideas

I am sure there are many other reasons to use it too. I was reading over at Sister Diane's blog about the ethics of pinners, some people use it so they can rip off an idea and that doesn't go down well but in this day in age, I think if you put an image out there on the net you have to accept that someone, somewhere might copy it. It's not right but it happens and if someone rips off my designs I will be mightily pissed off. If you really don't want your image to be copied or posted up on other sites, don't put it out on the net in the first place! Or at least watermark it.

Do you use Pinterest? What do you use it for? and did you know about the highlighting tip or was this a useless tutorial purely for myself lol.