This week, we had another great chat with #CraftBlogClub, where we discussed the most visual and exciting form of social media for crafters and artists alike - Pinterest.
I'm the first to admit I have had a Pinterest account for a while, but have only recently invested time into Pinning, be it visual stimulation for my novel writing or stashing inspiration for crafting projects (why not give my boards a follow HERE). And, since Pinterest has reared it's beautiful head in our previous discussions, as a key form of inspiration and go-to media for curing craft-block; I thought it would be a great idea to chat about the ups and downs of this media and how it helps us with our craft blogging.
For those of you who may not be in the know, Pinterest is a picture-sharing site, where you can choose your own pinboard 'themes' and pin pictures from just about every nook and cranny from the Internet. No moods, no in-depth chats with this one, just pure, unadulterated picture-porn.
To sum up tonight's chat, the only downside to Pinterest, really, is the amount of time that can be zapped into spending on it - you can literally while away the hours jumping from board to board and pinning endless beauties. But, on the plus side - most of the #CraftBlogClub collective cited Pinterest as the biggest cure for craft-block and the greatest tool for finding new and exciting inspiration. Like every form of social media - nothing is out of bounds and you can even create secret boards for private collages such as Weddings etc.
So how do we use Pinterest for our work?
Pin It, Don't Bin It - As lifestyle bloggers, Pinterest gives you the opportunity to separate your interests and create beautiful collages with a focus. Not only that - all your images, to-do lists and ideas remain in one safe place - remember the days of pesky paper collages that fell apart?!
Pin. Inspire. Tailor - We discussed a little bit about the amount of 'to-dos' we have on our Pinterest pages and how we endeavoured to fulfil these. Aside from a Pinterest-inspired challenge for the #CraftBlogClub collective, we discussed using our Pinterest-inspiration as simply that, inspiration. If you find you are struggling to fulfil your crafty desires - why not tailor your Pinterest ideas, using materials and methods you are already familiar with, to create something new!
Keep Your Blog's Best Pinterests At Heart - Use Pinterest's visual stimulation to create links to your own blog. Pinterest is, after all, another form of social sharing media, why should your wonderful blog creations not benefit from it? Using your own blog imagery, pin your visuals to your own boards (I created one for Life is Peachy, but sometimes find the images fit in to other boards too). Great images circulate around the internet, giving your blog the opportunity for repins on the site, which may eventually lead to increased blog traffic and new fans.
Share Your Collective Visions - As if we couldn't find a way for our #CraftBlogClub collective to benefit from Pinterest, I listened to some comments on my blog about a pinboard for #CraftBlogClub challenges etc and decided to create one for everyone to use. You can start viewing some of the pins right HERE and feel free to join in - give me a follow and I shall send you an invite. I want everyone to have free reign on this board - updates, WIPs, inspiration and ideas are all welcome!
In Other News...
Tonight, the lovely Amanda from Gift Frippery has launched her exciting Twitter competition, #FripperyFriday. To enter, each Friday, all you need to do is wrap a gift and tweet a picture to @GiftFrippery - Amanda will choose one winner each week up until Christmas and will be giving out prizes! Get thinking and get wrapping!
Blog Loving!
This week I'm loving the lovely Tamsyn's blog over at The Villa at Mount Pleasant not only a lovely blog about interiors, shabby chic and all things beautiful, Tamsyn's notebook challenge post is a really lovely idea AND she has just been featured in the holy Homemaker mag! All praise to you Tamsyn!
I don't miss a post from the wonderful Laura at Made Peachy and her beautiful lifestyle and crafts blog. Laura has great giveaways, wonderful tutorials and, this week, she's done an awesome post about knitting pattern abbreviations!
Finally, I had to give Hayley over at Nappy Cakes and Gifts another mention for being so forward in her Halloween challenge with #CraftBlogClub. Please head over and check out her papercutting for the challenge, it's looking fab!
#CraftBlogClub October Challenge
This was launched last week, but in case anyone missed it, our October challenge is to create a Halloween decoration using a craft method you haven't tried before.
I'm really excited about this challenge and I've had some amazing ideas from the collective too! Deadline will be October 29th and, as with September's, I will be putting up a linky to showcase the results!
Well that's about it from me this week - as usual, any questions give me a shout on Twitter or an email with your suggestions. There are lots of exciting things in the pipeline for #CraftBlogClub and it's continuing to grow - I hope everyone is enjoying taking part as much as I am. As always, I love hearing your feedback!
Stay Crafty
E x
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