Submitted by: Courtney Alchin
Coming up with new and different craft and art activities can often be challenging for the DT. Social media can now be used as a form of searching and archiving all your ideas together for later use. Pinterest is just one form of social media that is popular with DT’s. For people that have never heard of it Pinterest is where you create different boards that are categorised into different themes. Some key words that will help you navigate around Pinterest include Pin which is what the photos/craft ideas are called and a board which is where your pins for that specific board are placed. For example, on my personal Pinterest I have a board for DT, Christmas, Easter, my Wedding, and triathlon motivation. It is picture sharing at its finest, with the ability for you to use other people’s pins and people may even pin your pins when they enjoy your ideas that you are sharing.
To be able to start your board, you must first make a Pinterest account which is free and can link up to Facebook so you can join with all your Facebook friends’ boards also. If you don’t want it linking, that is fine, you just register with some simple details. Then once that is done, the fun begins. You will have a whole new world full of creative ideas and you’ll be pinning everything!
In the search bar, this world opens. You can search spring craft, sensory items that the clients can make for their own use and anything else you can think of that will meet your client’s needs, different abilities, and their range of interests. To have more pins relating to the topic you are after, ensure the words are specific to what you want to search. For help with this I have included the photos of what a search result looks like for Spring Craft for Adults. The endless ideas then flow and give you tabs to click for what ideas are under that topic. These include decoration, ideas, free printable, DIY, projects, outdoor, wood, jars, and tutorials on topics.
Once you have all these creative ideas in front of you, you can pin these pins on your board that you will create. The idea of the board is that you can view the pins anytime you would like. Your board name can be as boring or as creative as you make it, which usually involves the theme your board will follow then your description allows your fellow pinners to see what the board is all about.
From this, you can create as many boards as you like with a variety of different themes or ideas. With all these creative ideas in one spot, it really does become an ideal resource for DT’s to use as in one spot, you can pin ideas you have for six months away, and you won’t be able to forget them when it comes time to plan.
The great thing about Pinterest is that it can be viewed on the computer or downloaded as an app on any smart phone and tablet. This makes it very handy when you can access it on the go, in any place you want, even in a boring meeting! There is now even the option to categorise your searches to have the search aim for a specific gender if you have a male or female group you would like to target.
I hope this inspires you all to become involved in this social media sensation and be able to get the most out of this great site.
Happy Pinning!