I love Pinterest but it can totally suck you in if you aren't careful.  And I love looking for new ideas to strengthen our family's Catholic faith  in more than just Christmas & Easter.  The Internet is huge and many times links in a google search reference churches and church events making it hard to find what you are looking for.   That's why I use Pinterest for inspiring a Catholic lifestyle.  Here are three tips for using Pinterest without getting overwhelmed.

pinterest-catholic-inspiration

Plan It

Have a plan.  What are you looking for?  I, personally, am a book mom.  I love books.  My kids, however, are hands-on.  I am not.  Any activities have to be easy for ALL of us.

I also love liturgical year related things, but I am in the small child season of life.  Maybe you aren't in that season and prefer posts and pins of traditional devotions and spiritual reading.

Or Catholic travel, beautiful churches, cathedrals, or gardens.  Or maybe even Catholic art and music.

Whatever you are interested in, you can probably find it on Pinterest (and if you can't, you should start a blog & make pinnable images of things ;D).  So figure out what you are looking for & ignore the rest.

pinterest-home-page

Pin It

Since you've considered what you are looking for, think about how you might want to find that information again later.  Right now, I only have a single board called Catholic Fun.

Keeping in mind what I tend to pin, I should probably have boards for things like Catholic Picture Books, Liturgical Year - Lent/Easter, Liturgical Year - Ordinary Time, Liturgical Year - Advent/Christmas, (or by Season), or Saint Activities, Marian Feasts, & Jesus, Catholic Books, Bible Quotes, Catholic Travel, Catholic Art & Music, Catholic Homeschooling, and more.

So.  Organize your boards.   Search for things you are interested in and pin them (or repin them) to one of your boards.  There are a few things to make pins more useful to everyone:

1.  Make sure the links are for the post itself, not the website at large.  For instance, the URL should look like http://catholicmom.com/2014/04/17/blogging-on-your-iphone-or-pursuing-your-passion-in-stolen-moments/, not http://catholicmom.com/.  This helps you (and others) find it later.

2.  If you find an idea on another site, follow it all the way to the owner before pinning.  For instance, pin this link about a Marian Rosary Stepping Stone and not this link of Mary Garden Roundups.  Unless you want to pin the post with ALL the ideas & not just one.

3.  Add your own text to the pin description, especially if it's not a great description.  Adding words like Catholic and the subject are helpful to you and others looking for items.  For instance, this is a good item description:

pinterest-description

Follow It

If you find that you are pinning several items from the same place, you can either follow the board (for instance, my Catholic Fun board) or the all the boards of the pinner (like Angie @ Many Little Blessings).

This is fun because whenever you go to Pinterest, you will see what your friends (those that you have followed), are pinning.   The photo above is what my first page looks like based on the boards I am following.  Obviously I follow more than just Catholic topics :).

Are you on Pinterest?  What are some of your favorite Catholic Pinterest Boards & Pinners?

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Copyright 2014 Jen Steed