Pinterest 101

Pinterest is a well known social media platform that can be used by anybody. You may be an artist trying to showcase your work or looking for new ideas on how to build a business empire. You may be a hobbyist or artist in search of new project ideas or solutions.

Pinterest is mentioned often on this blog. It's a great resource for finding creative reuse ideas, but it can be intimidating for those who've never used it.

Welcome to Pinterest 101!

I should warn you, you may become addicted instantly!

I think of Pinterest like a giant scrapbook that allows me to keep all the ideas, recipes, and DIYs that I want to do in the future, in one place. This virtual scrapbook is easily organized so that with just a few clicks, I can find what I was looking at months ago. 

Pinterest is different from your regular internet bookmarks bar, because it allows you to attach photos and descriptions for quick reference. It is also shared on the internet, so you can see what other people have saved as well.

Did you know that the City of Edmonton is on Pinterest? There's even a Reuse Centre ideas board.

Setting Up Your Account

Your home feed will look something like this.

After you have signed up for an account, you will see a couple of things on the home page. There is a search bar at the top, your profile name to the top right, and tons of 'pins' below. This is called your 'home feed'.

In the top right, beside your name, you will see 2 thumb tacks that are a mirror image inside a grey icon. Click on that and you will find 3 tabs:

Find this icon on the far right, at the top of your page.

News is an update of what the people you follow pin, follow or like.

You updates you if people pinned or liked your pin. 

Messages is where you can view messages and pins that are sent to you from Pinterest friends and followers.

Building Your Pin Collection

Pins are typically made up of an image, captioned with text and linked to a website. The more boards you follow, the more pins will show up on your home feed.

A pin from the Reuse Centre board.

Sometimes you will see pins on your feed that Pinterest picked for you. Pinterest recommends other pins for you to view, based on the types of boards you follow, and the things you pin. You can also use the search bar to find pins related to a particular project or idea.

Clicking the Pinterest logo on the left will refresh your home feed. Clicking the button showing 3 horizontal bars
(on the right of the search bar) will open up a list of popular search options.

You can do 3 things when you hover on top of a pin with your mouse cursor.

1) Pin it. You can pin a pin on any board you have created. Title your boards to help you stay organized by topic. You might want separate boards for art, fashion, holidays or fitness.

2) Like it. You can 'like' by clicking the heart button, before you pin. This is especially handy if you don't have a suitable board to put it on yet, or maybe you didn't have time to fully read the pin. Sometimes the image can be deceiving and the pin's content doesn't match what you expected to see.

Here's a tip: I recommend not pinning everything you see that you kind of like! I often catch myself on Pinterest showing an interest in everything, and I just want to keep all this information forever without hesitation! Being selective with what I actually pin helps me to know that I saved a post with relevant and proper information.

3) Send it. You can share interesting pins with your friends who are on Pinterest, or send an email to those who aren't.

Staying Organized

Boards are where your pins are organized. Pretty simple and realistic! It's just like a virtual bulletin board.

You have the option to create both regular and secret boards. Regular boards can be seen and followed by anyone. Secret boards can be seen only by you and friends you have authorized. You cannot change this preference later on. Once a secret board, always a secret board.

After you title a board, you have the option to give it a description, give it a cover photo/pin (large image on board), categorize the board for others to search it, and even to allow other followers to collaborate with you on the board. This option is great for people who are working on a project together.

View your boards, or create new ones, by clicking on your name at the top right of your screen.

This is a basic tutorial, but you can reference help.pinterest.com for any questions you may have. You can even search for Pinterest tips and tricks in the Pinterest search bar. It sounds silly, but can be really useful!

I use Pinterest to organize ideas from other reusers from all over the world. I have a do-it-yourself (DIY) board, a home inspiration board, and a things to try board. I find myself looking over these ideas all the time and trying them when I feel inspired!

Enjoy Pinterest and all that it has to offer!

- Michelle (Volunteer)
with additional information and edits by staff

Screencaptures of Pinterest.com taken by Michelle and Reuse Centre staff

Halloween Tutorial - Milk Jug Lid Spiders

Nothing gives away your age like being obsessed with pipe cleaners and pompoms. Yup 70's child front and centre! Except when I was little they actually were for cleaning pipes and only came in yellow from the smoke shop. Hard to believe I'm only mid 30's right?

Moving swiftly on, just made these for the little guy and had to share, tons of fun, pompoms, googly eyes, pipe cleaners, ribbon, and ... milk jug lids, heaven.

Milk Jug Lid

Glue on your pompoms.

Glue on two more for eyes and 2 googly eyes.

Wrap base of lid in ribbon/bias tape just to hide the ugly plastic. If you have plenty of pompoms you could use those instead.

Cut a small piece of pipe cleaners for fangs and 8 Z shaped pieces for legs.

Glue on fangs.

Flip him/her over and glue the legs in place, hold on to each one for 5-10 secs to make sure it's glued properly or it will come off when you start rearranging the legs.

Flip it back over and play around with the legs until it either sits or stands.

It's ok they're tame, just don't feed them after midnight! (Ancient movie reference ahoy!)

- Emma (Volunteer)

Halloween Tutorials - Mini Spell Book

Add a little touch of Halloween or straight up bibliophile glamour to your fall outfit with these recycled spell books, even the smallest amount of paper, card and leather can make one of these. So why not make a few and wear them all together?

What you'll need:

• Small piece of scrap leather, the more wrinkled and aged the better
• Small scrap of cardboard (hard back of a notebook would do fine)
• 1 piece of letter-sized printer paper
• Scrap of decorative paper
• 1 O ring
• Gold Sharpie pen (permanent marker)
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun
• Bull dog clip/bag clip
• Needle (to punch a hole)
• Yellow pages (to lean on)

1. Take one piece of printer paper (A4 if you're in the UK) cut it into 1 inch slices along the width of the paper. Divide the paper up into 5 smaller pieces which should measure roughly 1& 3/4 inches across. I used N.American letter-sized paper which I know is different to A4 so you'll have to play around with the sizes. Make a big pile of these rectangles then fold them in half and squeeze them with a bag clip/bulldog clip. All of the folded 'spines' should be facing the same side and that side should be poking out of the clip.

2. From the cardboard cut 2 rectangles, 7/8ths of an inch by 1 1/4 inches, these will be the front and back of the book, the spine should measure roughly 5/8ths by 1 1/4 inches.

3. Then tape them across the back leaving a hair's gap between the separate pieces, painters tape would be best but I used what I had.

4. If you left enough gap you should be able to fold the cardboard into a book shape.

5. Taking a scrap of decorative paper, draw around the book cover, depending on how large a gap you left the measurement for this will vary. Add double sided tape to the decorative paper and stick to the book cover, either side is fine.

6. Fold the book to give you a less flat book cover.

7. With a hot glue gun stick the wedge of papers folded 'spine' side down into the centre of the book cover, don't be scared to use a great big glob of hot glue, more is more in this case. Push down gently to make sure all the pages adhere nicely.

8. Give it a little squish if you want your book to sit more closed, don't if you want an open looking book.

9. With hot glue again take a scrap of leather and stick the outside of the book cover to it, you can trim round it once it's stuck, don't worry too much about the leather looking rough or feathered at the edges, it's meant to look old right?

10. Now for the fun bit, I used a Sharpie in gold with a fine tip and made a rough edge of gold around the outside of the book cover then smudged it with my finger to age it a little.

11. To give the spine more definition take the gold pen make a rough line and smudge it gently then add some small gold dots, smudging again if it looks too crisp. These books are teeny tiny so I was unable to add a legible title or writing to it. Instead, I made tiny dots of varying heights and smudged them. I just thought about where any text would be and put the dots there. In the pic below I gave the book yellowed pages by just scribbling along the book edges with a gold pen.

12. Punch a hole through the cover preferably with a needle and leaning on a yellow pages, making sure you also go through the cardboard (take it easy, I missed first time eek), add an O ring then put one or two on a chain, and wear them.

Have fun wearing your new necklace!

- Emma (Volunteer)

Tutorial Framed Button Monogram

Mother's Day is fast approaching and it's an occasion for which, I'm sorry to say, I've always had a little trouble in coming up with a good gift.  The day calls for something small, and understated which is a difficult concept for me.  Fortunately, my addiction to Pinterest provided me with a few great (and easy!) ideas for something nice for my mom.  She's been doing some redecorating lately, and trying to find some new and interesting things for the walls, which is why I finally settled on making her a framed Button Monogram.

For this craft, you will need:

A picture frame

Something onto which to mount the buttons: some wallpaper/a square of fabric

A lot of buttons

Glue (hot, crazy, craft) OR Needle and thread

A pencil

My mom has pretty classy taste, and she's really into black and white graphics.  I decided to design her monogram with black/dark buttons on a white background, then mount it in a black frame.  I found a nice, unused 8" x 10" shadow box lying around the house, but you can also find the perfect frame at the Reuse Centre!  

I removed the insert with the cheesy photo from the frame and used it as a template to cut out the anaglypta wallpaper I found to use.  I like the textured quality of the anaglypta, but an interesting piece of fabric would be equally lovely.

I didn't want to waste buttons or wreck the monogram by free-styling their placement, so I first laid out a few loose buttons in an "S" shape to help choose the right sizes and colours.  You could also trace the letter you want with a pencil, but the pattern on the anaglypta made this a bit difficult.  This way, you can make any necessary changes before you make anything permanent with glue.  (In this case, I switched out the big buttons for smaller ones and used some coloured ones instead of all black.)

If you're using fabric, you'll probably want to secure the buttons with needle and thread.  After attaching the first layer of buttons, you can plump up the monogram by filling in any empty spaces with more buttons.  Allow the monogram plenty of time to dry, then just pop it in the frame!  I finished it off with some pearly pins in the corners for some added interest.  

This was unbelievably easy (and needless to say, economical) to assemble, and now my mom will have something new for her walls.

Happy Mother's Day!

-Nichole (Volunteer)

Tutorial Easter Bunny Egg Cosies

Rummaging through the fabric bins for some Easter inspiration I came upon some small remnants of psychedelic fabric I can only imagine hailed from the 70''s.  Floral? Check. Random colours? Check. They caught my eye and needed showcasing, but how?

Sometimes all it takes is a small piece of a bold fabric to make the project pop, this is that project.

What you'll need:

Small piece of mid weight fabric, denim or cord are perfect. The fabric will need to stand up on its own when sewn together so nothing light or drapey.
Scraps of a bold patterned fabric
Scissors
Sewing machine

Optional: bias tape maker, pre-made bias tape

Using the shapes in the photo cut out two arc shapes, this will be the main piece and should be no bigger than the palm of your hand. 

Cut two ear pieces, round off the ends of two rectangles, repeat with patterned fabric.

Lastly cut out one circle 2 inches across.

Right sides together sew your patterned and main fabric ear shapes together reinforcing stitches at start and finish of each piece.

Flip right sides out, at the open edge fold the sides of the ears in, pinch and sew across to make a rolled ear shape. Repeat for the other ear.


With the raw edges of the ears lined up to the top edge of the main arc shape piece, stitch both ears down ensuring they are evenly spaced across the top edge and leaving a gap in the middle.

Layer the other main arc shape on top of the piece you have sewn the ears to and stitch three quarters of the way round, starting at the bottom edge and finishing halfway down the opposite side.

Add bias tape (or double fold) the raw bottom edge. I made a faux bias tape by using a 1 1/2 inch strip of the patterned fabric on the straight grain, double folded it then stitched it down, opening up the bunny to make the bottom edge lay flat as I sewed.

Turn bunny inside out again and stitch up the remaining open edge, reinforcing stitching at the end.

For an extra bit of psychedelic flare I made a yo-yo and hand-stitched this to the back in place of a tail.

To make your own yo-yo's (hand sewing required):
-Cut a circle two inches across, stitch a running stitch all the way around the outside of the circle starting from the inside with a knotted thread, stitch 1/8 in or thereabouts from the edge.
-Pull up the threads when you get to the end and knot. You should be left with a circular puff of fabric.
Turn it over and hand-stitch it to the back of the Egg cosy, in place of a tail.

Add a cute face or just leave it plain, make them your own with your fave Reuse Centre fabric finds.

Happy Easter

- Emma (Volunteer)

Tutorial - Milk Bottle Top Ornaments

Crafting Christmas Decorations this season or looking for stocking fillers?

Pop in and pick up some supplies for these cute and seasonal decorations, shhhhh no-one will ever guess you started out with humble milk jug lids.

What you'll need:

Plastic Milk Bottle tops 
Small piece of stitched Aida Fabric/Embroidered fabric roughly 2.5''square across
Small lengths of Bias Tape/Ribbon/Piping/Decorative Trim
Hot Glue Gun
Felt
Scissors
Cardboard

1.Take your design and trim it up to approx 2.5'' making sure the design is centred.

2. Draw around your milk bottle top to make a cardboard template then cut just in side the lines, the card piece will need to fit inside the milk bottle top easily but not be too loose.

3. Put your template into the centre of your design and hot glue gun bit by bit the edges trying to keep to a rounded shape where possible, trim off excess where needed.

4. You should have something that looks like this, it's not perfectly circular but you can poke down the edges into the Milk bottle top so don't be too worried.

Next I'm going to show you several ways of disguising the ugly plastic milk bottle top, and yes I can see the irony of swapping red plastic for red felt. If you don't mind the plastic showing then that's fine just add a ton of hot glue to the inside of the Bottle top and carefully place your stitched piece inside, hot glue ribbon around the outside of the bottle top tie in a bow and you are ready to hang it. I personally don't like the look of plastic so here are some extra steps to gussy up your humble bottle top.

Method 1: Disguising your plastic edges with piping and felt.

1. With your design glued in place add piping to the outside of the bottle top making sure that the piped edge hangs over the plastic edge and hides it. Start glueing the piping at a slant, be careful of your fingers, it`s easy to burn yourself when pressing this down.

2. Keep rotating the piping until you get back to the beginning then cross the end over the start of the piping, cut the extra off and stick down, if it`s at a funny point then just stick a ribbon over the top :)

3. Next you`re going to want to hide the edges of the piping, the bit you aren`t supposed to see, do this by cutting a strip just wider and a little bit longer than the edge of your bottle top, stick down and overlap the ends.

4. Flip it over and add a loop of ribbon for hanging, glue down then cover the whole base of the bottle top in hot glue, stick down on a piece of co-ordinating felt then cut around it, don`t be too skimpy as you`ll want the edge and the bottom pieces of felt to meet.

That`s it you`re done, one mini hangable piece of stitchery.

Method 2 Disguising your plastic edges with Bias tape, Felt and Trim.

1. I`m using a single fold piece of Bias tape for this, here it is for those not quite sure what it looks like. You just need a piece long enough to stretch around the milk bottle top and join so this is great for those of us that keep every scrap of everything.

2. Add some hot glue to the inside rim of the bottle top then place the Bias tape over the edge, the edge of the top should fit snugly inside the fold of the Bias tape.

3. Continue around until the edge is covered with Bias tape adding hot glue as you go and ensuring the rim of the bottle top stays inside the folded edge of the Bias tape.

4. When you get to the end, over lap, cut off the excess then stick down.

5. The bias tape may not fit snugly when you turn it over, if this happens just hot glue gun a little to stick it down.

6. Glue in your stitched picture. Add a ribbon loop to hang and a felt circle to the bottom as before then get to decorating the outside edge. If you`re not happy about the joining of the Bias tape as before stick on a ribbon!

7. Start glueing your trim down, don`t cut off the excess til you have glued down the whole length, no-one wants a too short length (excuse my cheeky British double entendres!, blame it on a misspent youth reading Viz!)

Couple more ways of decorating/finishing off. Add the piping then wind round some bias tape to cover up the stitching on the piping, then add a little lace trim or another decorative ribbon scrap.

Finishing off

Add a ribbon loop to hang your mini works of art, or add a pin to the back to turn in to the worlds cutest brooch or add a magnet for the worlds cutest fridge magnet.

- Emma (Volunteer)