Pepper Design Blog

Pinterest Tips & Tricks

Happy Friday! Today I thought I might share a few tips I’ve learned with Pinterest. You may have heard of a few of these before, but I hope that you find some of them helpful!

*Find out how to see which images from your site/blog have been pinned
*Find the original source of any image
*Let friends, bloggers and websites know that you’ve pinned them
*Add ‘search engine optimization’ to your pins
*Collaborate with friends on boards

Are you on Pinterest? It’s quite addicting!

1. If you have a blog and are curious as to which images from your site have been pinned, there’s a quick and easy way to find out.

To find out which images have been pinned from any site, add the url address of that site after: www.pinterest.com/source/. For example, Pepper Design Blog would be: www.pinterest.com/source/pepperdesignblog.com. This little tip shows which images have been most recently pinned, not all pinned images ever.

2. Pinterest has really improved in helping users to find the original source of an image, but it’s not quite there yet. You can quickly jump back to the original url of an image by selecting the link right under the pinner’s name:

But here’s my favorite trick! When that doesn’t work, or when you want to find the original source to any image online, simply pick up and drag that image into a ‘new tab’ in your browser window. Here I’m dragging one of the posts from my PDB feed from above right over the little ‘+’ sign that indicates a new tab.

The new location that opens is where the previous pinner found your image. You might have to drag and drop the image a few times, but eventually you’ll be led right back to the original post. The only time that this doesn’t work is if the pinner pinned an image from the homepage of a website rather than the particular post that that image came from (which is why it’s key be sure you’re on an individual post url when you’re pinning images, too. You can usually select the heading of any post on any homepage to be taken to that post’s individual url). PS A commenter mentioned that you can double click on an image and it will take you right to the source – I tested it out and it works! An even easier solution!

3. If you ‘follow’ a pinner, you can notify them that you’ve pinned their image (much like Facebook and Twitter). This is helpful if you want to ask a question or offer a comment on an image that you’d like the originator to see, or if you want to share the image with a particular friend. Tag someone in a description by using the @ symbol and then by selecting from the drop down list as you type out the name/blog/website that you’re following.

4. Pinterest uses the descriptions of images to help other users find those images when they are searching for a particular word or phrase. Feel free to help Pinterest out by using hash tags (#) in front of keywords in any description for an image you’re pinning, it will help your fellow pinners at some point in the future! PS Furthermore, Pinterest will default to a description that just lists what the image was originally saved as ‘desserts_ballooncupcakes_400px.jpg’ which isn’t useful at all to other pinners. Be sure to rename to help future searchers out .

5. This features is actually new to me because it wasn’t around when I joined Pinterest, but now you can collaborate with friends directly just be identifying them when creating a new board. Now the bride-to-be can add her bridesmaids for collecting ideas, or a  designer can work directly with a client by collaborating on an Living Room Makeover board.

Well there you have it, five new tips that I’ve found to be very helpful. Not on Pinterest yet? You’ll love it , and come say hi by finding me right here.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Project Nursery: Felt Owl Storage/Laundry Bin

Back before Liv was born and I was unsure if we were having a little boy or girl, I had put together a pretty gender free nursery (we added the coral and pink touches just after Liv’s birth) inspired by cute little playful baby animals. I hadn’t wanted to carry the theme too far throughout the room and stuck to these awesome wall designs with coordinating solid and patterned fabrics. But I had always had an eye for these guys!

I had imagined making my own with whichever storage bins we ended up needing for the space. 18 months later and I’ve finally given it a go, converting a standard brown canvas hamper into a cute little owl bin for dirty clothes.

A fabric bin like this would be great for toys, too!

The process could have been incredibly simple but my quest for a smaller-than-average laundry basket proved to be daunting! The usual (in case you’re interested) is roughly 14x14x30″ and is quite a big size for a nursery space. I finally found the above at The Container Store and spent a little more than I had planned (this guy was on sale for $22.99) for my 11.5×11.5×23.5″ mini-me laundry bin.

The good news! If a regular laundry bin will fit your space, there’s a plethora of options in all colors and price points over at Amazon.

I created the little owl out of felt sheets from Michaels (I think they were $.99 each) and sort of winged the design (hehe) after Googling images of nursery owls. This guy ended up with an oatmeal tan body, burgundy wings and purple feathers.

I used a standard white glue to adhere him together, though I noticed that it started to seep through the felt! and ended up creating a few funny blotches. I might try using just a little crazy glue next time instead, hot glue would be tough as I bet it might melt parts of the felt material.

Next up was the top red lining. You’ll notice in the picture from The Container Store that the actual hamper has a damask fold over lining and a mesh closure, both of which I didn’t need and both of which I carefully cut out.

Here’s a shot of the outside lip which is now sans the fold over lining and mesh:

And one of the inside of the bag:

If you had a laundry basket that is ready to go as is, this is where you’d jump into the tutorial to add the top lining and animal on the front.

I made the red lining for the top of the bin out of red felt as well.

Because my edges were 11.5″ in length, I cut four 12×3″ sections of felt and then sewed the lengths together to create one long piece with three seams.

Then I added a few stitches at each corner, sewing the felt seams directly to the hamper seams. You could always use a ribbon for a similar effect but I wanted a material I could actually fold over the metal bars of the hamper rather than just line the very top edge.

Instead of continuing my stitch (which could have taken a long time! plus I was going for a pretty seamless look) I used a line of glue down both the inside and outside of the lining and pinned the felt in place on the laundry bin to dry (ended up needing pliers to pull the glued pins out, maybe I waited too long , clothes pins might be a nice alternative).

And here she is! Ready for clothes and ready for action.

Do you like my empty Aaron’s Brothers frame up there in the right corner? I have so many pictures that I really need to hang up…

I looove how small it is, it fits perfectly into the space between Liv’s reading/play nook and her changing table. The damask lining actually adds a nice, unexpected touch!

Now how fun would it be to convert these storage bins into toy catch-alls around the house? or on a bookshelf in a playroom?

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |  5 | 6 | 7

Happy crafting .

PS If you want to go waaaay back, here are more Project Nursery posts: tree branch floating shelves, tree branch bookshelf inspiration, newly updated felt mobile, a new reading nook part 1, finished after photos, no sew fabric pennant, baby clothing art, handmade felt butterfly mobile, DIY crib skirt, basket liners part 1, part 2, the, glider makeover, recovering an ottoman, sewing lined curtains part 1, part 2, part 3, curtain fabric selection, nursery fabric board, rocking horse find, new pendant light, new sconce lighting, vintage wall art addition, changing table makeover, nursery wall striping tutorial , painted animal project, the initial inspiration board breakdown, the before pictures

Balloon Bunch Cupcakes & a Baby Shower

Happy Monday! I thought I’d share a fun cupcake idea that I put together for a friend’s baby shower recently. Who doesn’t love lollipops and cupcakes? And when the two candy and cake worlds collide?

Inspired by a little blurb I saw in a Parenting Magazine article on creative cupcake toppers, I made balloon bunch cupcakes out of little dum dum lollipops using my favorite buttercream icing and rainbow nonpareils.

Yum!

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Balloon Bunch Cupcakes
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Materials: Cooled cupcakes, icing (store bought or homemade – see recipe below), rainbow nonpareils (round sprinkles) – any color would be fun!, dum dum lollipops, ribbon

I usually love a great homemade cupcake but on this particular day I saved myself a bit of time by using a boxed mix (a delicious lemon raspberry or homemade red velvet would have been very fun for this particular design!). To make things a little interesting, I split my cupcake batter into two different portions, half with a few drops of red food coloring and half as the original vanilla mix.

Plop of vanilla, plop of pink, plop of vanilla plus a toothpick to swirl it up! I recommend filling cupcake liners to just over half way so that you have a nice flat icing surface to work with.

While these guys are in the oven, it’s on to the frosting. I didn’t skimp here, this is my favorite homemade buttercream and it’s buttery delicious! Sweet enough to bring out a great flavor but a version that won’t immediately melt in the sun on you, which is important for buttercream icing + outdoor parties. Though I’m not sure I’d be daring enough to use it on a cake in direct sunlight…