Inspiration Boards

I found myself admitting to a friend this week that I have a small obsession, and it started when I was very young.  I absolutely love going through old magazines, travel brochures, and the internet looking for images that catch my eye.  I can't help but cut them out and add them to my already huge collection.

My mom recently found my very first scrapbook and gave it to me.  We had a good laugh as we looked through it.  And then laughed some more when I said, "You know, I still do this!"

My First Scrapbook

When I was little, my mom must've felt very sorry for her little girl who looked through her magazines over and over, each time returning to the same pages just to look at the pretty pictures of Breck girls, coloured Easter eggs, Barbies, and ruffled bed spreads.  Finally, she bought me a book and let me cut the pictures out so that they would all be in one place, and probably so that I would stop asking to look at her magazines~  I think this may have been a very early version of what we now know as Vision Boards.

I've progressed somewhat.  I have nice books and folders that I put my collections into.  And everything is sorted by travel, fashion, hairstyles, home decor, colours and textures, etc.  You name it and I probably have a book full of pictures of it.

I thought I had come up with the best solution when I start pinning up inspiration pics on cork boards in my studio:

And then I found Pinterest!  It takes this whole thing to the next level!

Pinterest is a place where you can pin online images onto boards that you create online!  You can view other people's boards and re-pin images of theirs that you like.  If you don't mind giving up some control you can even open your boards up so that other people can add to them.  (I haven't tried this feature out yet~) 

You have to create an account once you've received an invitation to join, and then there's a bit of downloading involved, but in the end, it's worth it!

It's a great way to waste time and to avoid doing all kinds of other things I should be doing.  It's also a very convenient way for me to see photos and images of things that I love and am inspired by.

Try out pinterest and let me know what you think.  Do you have other ways of collecting inspiration?  Leave a comment and let me know!

Coming soon: ironing board cover