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How to Create Your Dream Pinterest Feed
(Instead of Scrolling Through Random Stuff)
Open Pinterest for a second. What do you see?
Is it a gorgeous collection of ideas that makes you want to pull out your paper cutter, grab your craft supplies and immediately make something?
Or is it… chaos?
A recipe you don't remember looking for. A bizarre product. A celebrity house. An outrageous before-and-after photo you clicked once because you HAD to know what happened. A random craft. Something mildly interesting. Another weird thing.
And somewhere in there are three things you actually love.
If that's your Pinterest feed, you've been using Pinterest wrong.
Don't worry — it's ridiculously easy to start fixing it.
Because here's the thing I absolutely LOVE about Pinterest: you can teach it what you want to see.
If you want a Pinterest home feed filled with beautiful color palettes, junk journal inspiration, scrapbook ideas, card making projects, free printables, DIY craft tutorials and creative quotes that make you want to drop everything and make something, you can help Pinterest build exactly that for you.
You just have to give it some direction.
And today I'm going to show you how I use Pinterest to create my own little creative inspiration haven — and how you can start transforming your Pinterest feed into one, too.
Your Pinterest Feed Might Be a Mess Because You Accidentally Made It That Way
I know. Rude. 😂
But hear me out.
Pinterest is constantly trying to figure out what you're interested in so it can show you more things you might enjoy.
And what are we doing in the meantime?
We're clicking things because they're weird.
We're looking at things because they're surprising.
We're opening some bizarre product because WHAT EVEN IS THAT?!
We're clicking an outrageous before-and-after picture because surely that can't be real.
We're looking up a recipe one time because we happen to have six zucchini sitting on the kitchen counter.
Then we wonder why Pinterest is showing us zucchini bread, strange gadgets, celebrity kitchens and something called a “life-changing cleaning hack” when all we really wanted was some pretty junk journal inspiration.
Oops.
The good news is that Pinterest's ability to learn what interests you is also what makes it such an incredibly useful creative tool.
You don't have to simply accept whatever Pinterest happens to put in front of you.
You can start giving it better clues.
Stop Just Scrolling Pinterest — Start Curating It
This is the biggest change I want you to make.
Don't think of Pinterest as something you simply scroll through.
Think of it as a gigantic visual library — and you're the librarian.
When you find a beautiful color combination, don't just think "Oooh, that's pretty", and keep scrolling. Save it.
When you find a clever junk journal embellishment idea you might want to try later, save it.
When you see a scrapbook layout with a gorgeous little cluster in the corner that gives you an idea for something completely different, save it.
When you find a creative quote that makes you want to march straight into your craft room and make something, SAVE IT.
Every board you create becomes another shelf in your personal inspiration library.
Instead of:
Open → Scroll → Scroll → Click Something Weird → Scroll → Forget Everything → Close Pinterest
Aim for:
Discover → Save → Organize → Revisit → CREATE.
That's when Pinterest gets really good.
Yes, We're Going to Talk About “The Algorithm”
Don't run away. 😂
I know the word algorithm doesn't exactly scream cozy afternoon in the craft room.
But I actually love algorithms.
Hear me out. Used intentionally, they save me a tremendous amount of mental energy.
Instead of searching for every single thing I might like, I can give Pinterest clues about my interests and let it help find things for me.
You don't need to understand the technical workings of the Pinterest algorithm to take advantage of it, either.
For our purposes, think of Pinterest as constantly trying to answer one question:
“What should I show this person next?”
Your activity helps give Pinterest clues.
So if I want more beautiful color inspiration in my Pinterest home feed, I'm going to search for color palettes, browse color palette ideas and — most importantly — save the ones I genuinely love.
Every save is essentially me saying:
YES. MORE OF THIS, PLEASE.
That's the mindset I want you to have throughout this entire process. Don't save something because it's vaguely nice. Don't save it because you feel like you're supposed to. Save the things that make your creative brain light up.
YES. More of this.
Be Careful What You Curiosity-Click
Now let's talk about one of my own internet weaknesses.
The curiosity click.
You know the one.
You're happily scrolling through beautiful scrapbook pages and flower gardens and suddenly Pinterest shows you something completely bizarre.
You don't particularly like it.
You don't want to make it.
You don't want to buy it.
It has absolutely nothing to do with anything you normally enjoy.
But...
WHAT IS THAT?!
Click.
😂
Of course we're going to do that occasionally. We're human.
But it helps to recognize the difference between something that genuinely represents your interests and something that simply grabbed your attention.
The next time you find yourself about to click something completely random, ask:
“Do I actually want MORE of this?”
If the answer is no, maybe that weird internet rabbit hole doesn't need your attention today.
Save your strongest signals for the things you really want Pinterest to find for you.
Create Pinterest Boards for the Inspiration You WANT
This is where things get fun.
Instead of having one enormous board called “Crafts” with seventeen years of random ideas tossed into it, start creating boards around the kinds of inspiration you'd genuinely like Pinterest to find for you.
You don't need to create twenty new Pinterest boards today.
Start with a few.
What do you want to see more of?
Beautiful color combinations?
Junk journal ideas?
Free paper craft printables?
Card making inspiration?
Scrapbook layouts?
Creative quotes?
DIY projects?
Vintage ephemera?
Make a home for them.
And if you're starting some new inspiration boards, you're welcome to come rummage around my Pinterest boards for ideas to fill them. I've collected thousands and thousands of pins over the years, including lots of my own tutorials, printables and creative ideas along with inspiration I've found from other creators.
Here are some of my favorite types of boards to create:
Create a Color Palette Inspiration Board
If you've spent much time around my site, you probably already know how much I love color.
Color combinations can inspire an entire project before you have any idea what you're actually going to make.
A soft dusty pink paired with antique cream and muted green might suddenly make you want to create a romantic botanical junk journal.
Deep plum, warm rust and golden brown might become a fall scrapbook page.
Powder blue, weathered beige and soft gray might become the starting point for an entire stack of handmade cards.
That's why I think every creative person should have a color palette inspiration board.
You could call yours: Color Palettes I Love, Craft Color Inspiration, Beautiful Color Combinations, Scrapbook Color Palettes, Junk Journal Color Inspiration, or anything else that fits.
Something that's clear and you'll be able to remember: "This is where I save my color inspo".
Then fill it with colors that make you think:
I want to make something with THAT.
Don't worry about whether you know what you're going to make yet. You're simply building your own visual color library.
I've been creating lots of color palette pins lately, so if you want a head start, come browse my Color Palettes Pinterest board and save your favorite combinations to your own color inspiration board.
I've posted some my favorites below:
Create a “Crafts I Actually Want to Make” Board
There are inspiration boards...
…and then there are I ACTUALLY WANT TO MAKE THIS boards.
I think there's room for both.
Your general DIY and craft inspiration board might contain hundreds or thousands of clever projects you've collected over the years.
But consider creating a smaller board specifically for projects you genuinely intend to try.
Maybe it's a handmade suncatcher.
A garden decoration.
A paper crafting technique.
An upcycled project.
A handmade gift.
A new way to decorate your craft room.
Whatever it is, keep this board more selective.
Think of it as your creative to-do list.
I have lots of physical craft tutorials as well as digital crafting ideas, and you can browse my DIY & Crafts Pinterest boards when you're looking for your next project. I keep all my FAVORITE crafty pins on this DIY & Crafts Best of the Best board:
Make a Creative Quotes Board — Seriously
Not everything you save needs to teach you how to make something.
Some things should simply make you want to create.
That's why I love the idea of keeping a board filled with creative quotes and little reminders about making things.
Creativity can be messy.
Sometimes we overthink things.
Sometimes we're afraid we're going to waste our good supplies.
Sometimes we compare our work to everyone else's.
Sometimes we're convinced everything we make needs to be perfect.
And sometimes we just need something to remind us:
GO MAKE SOMETHING.
Create a board called Creative Quotes, Creative Encouragement, Words for Creative People, Creative Motivation or whatever makes sense to you.
Then fill it with words that make you feel excited about creating.
I've been collecting creative quotes on Pinterest too, so you can browse my Creative Quotes & Crafting Inspiration board and save the ones that speak to you.
The more creative encouragement you intentionally interact with, the more chances you're giving Pinterest to understand that this is the kind of content you enjoy seeing.
Wouldn't you rather open Pinterest and see something that makes you want to create than another weird gadget you clicked once at 11:30 at night?
I would. 😂
Build a Junk Journal Inspiration Board
If you're a junk journaler, this one could get dangerously big. 😂
There are SO many things you can collect for junk journal inspiration: printable ephemera, vintage papers, tags, pockets, journal cards, embellishment clusters, botanical images, distressed textures, layering ideas, journal pages and all those wonderful little details that make a handmade journal interesting.
You could create one big Junk Journal Inspiration board with multiple sections in it or separate your favorite ideas into several smaller boards.
Maybe you want a board specifically for Junk Journal Printables.
Maybe another for Junk Journal Embellishment Ideas.
Or Vintage Junk Journal Inspiration.
Or Junk Journal Clusters.
Build whatever is useful for the way you create.
And here's another tip:
Don't only save projects you intend to recreate exactly.
Maybe you love one tiny detail.
Maybe it's the way someone layered a tag over a torn piece of paper.
Maybe it's an unexpected color combination.
Maybe someone added a tiny button, piece of lace or postage stamp in a way you hadn't considered.
That's inspiration. Save it.
I have a whole Junk Journal Pinterest board filled with printable junk journal pages, ephemera, embellishments and ideas. Browse through it and steal—er, save 😂—your favorites to start filling your own inspiration boards.
Make a Paper Crafting Inspiration Board
Not every wonderful paper craft idea fits neatly into “junk journals,” “scrapbooking” or “card making.”
That's why I also love having a broader Paper Crafts board.
This is a great place to collect interesting paper crafting techniques, printable embellishments, die cut ideas, tags, pockets, layering techniques, distressed paper ideas, creative ways to use ephemera and all those little "I should try that!" ideas.
If you use printable embellishments, pay particular attention to ideas that show you different ways to use the same supplies.
Resize them.
Ink them.
Distress them.
Layer them.
Curl them.
Tear them.
Stamp over them.
Combine several simple printable pieces into one beautiful dimensional cluster.
One printable can become dozens of different things depending on what you do with it.
If you want some ideas to get started, browse my Paper Crafts Pinterest board and save the techniques and projects that spark ideas for your own crafting.
Start a Scrapbooking Inspiration Board
Even if you're not currently working on a scrapbook, a good scrapbook inspiration board is incredibly useful for paper crafters.
Why?
Because scrapbookers are REALLY good at arranging things on paper.
Think about it.
Scrapbook layouts can give you ideas for color combinations, photo placement, titles, journaling, layering, embellishment clusters, borders, backgrounds and ways to visually balance a page.
And those ideas don't have to stay in scrapbooking.
A scrapbook embellishment cluster could inspire the front of a greeting card.
A scrapbook page layout could inspire a junk journal page.
A little title treatment could become a printable tag.
Creative ideas don't have to stay in the category where you found them.
My Scrapbooking Pinterest board has a huge collection of scrapbook layouts and paper crafting inspiration to browse when you need some new ideas.
Make a Card Making Inspiration Board
Card makers, you get your own inspiration library too!
A Card Making Ideas board is a wonderful place to collect card layouts, handmade embellishments, interesting folds, sentiment placement ideas, background techniques, seasonal cards and beautiful color combinations.
Again, don't feel like you need to recreate the entire card.
Maybe you're only saving it because you love the arrangement of three flowers.
Perfect.
That's enough of a reason.
You aren't building a list of assignments.
You're building an inspiration library.
If handmade cards are your thing, browse my Card Inspiration Pinterest board and save a few favorites to start teaching Pinterest the kinds of card making ideas you'd like to see more often.
You DEFINITELY Need a Free Printables Board
This is one of my favorites.
How many times have you seen a free printable online and thought:
Oooh! I'll come back and download that later.
And then...
Goodbye forever. 😂
You have absolutely no idea where you saw it.
This is exactly what Pinterest boards are good at solving.
Make yourself a Free Printables for Paper Crafters board.
Then when you discover printable journal cards, free scrapbook printables, printable ephemera, free paper craft templates or other crafty freebies that you might want later, SAVE THEM.
Now you've built yourself a little free printable library.
I have a Free Printables for Paper Crafters Pinterest board that I've been filling with freebies, so that's a great place to start browsing for things you'd like to save.
And here's another reason you might want to keep an eye on my Pinterest page:
Every once in a while, I sneak a bonus freebie onto Pinterest.
So if you enjoy my printables, don't forget to follow me while you're there.
Make a “Things That Inspire Me” Board
This might be the most important board of all.
Because not everything that inspires your creativity needs to be a craft.
Save flowers.
Old books.
Beautiful rooms.
Gardens.
Interesting architecture.
Vintage advertisements.
Fabric.
Typography.
Antiques.
Textures.
Weathered wood.
Beautiful packaging.
Nature photography.
An incredible color combination you spotted in someone's living room.
Anything.
You don't have to know why something inspires you before you're allowed to save it.
Sometimes you'll come back months later and realize that photograph of an old garden gate contained the exact green you wanted for a journal.
Or the colors in a flower arrangement become a scrapbook palette.
Or the texture on an old wall inspires a distressed paper background.
This is your permission to create a board with no rules other than:
This makes my creative brain happy.
I have one too.
Your Pinterest Boards Don't Have to Match My Pinterest Boards
This is important.
I'm a paper crafter, digital designer and DIY crafter, so naturally my Pinterest account contains lots of junk journal printables, scrapbooking ideas, card making inspiration, color palettes, craft tutorials, printables, creative quotes and other creative projects.
Yours should reflect you.
Maybe you want:
Cozy Christmas Craft Ideas
Botanical Junk Journal Inspiration
Vintage Blue & White
Things to Make With Paper Scraps
Handmade Gifts I Want to Try
Beautiful Craft Rooms
Garden Projects
Halloween Paper Crafts
Pink & Green Color Inspiration
Ideas for My Next Junk Journal
The more specific your interests are, the more useful your boards can become.
You're not organizing Pinterest for anyone else.
You're building it for Future You.
Give Pinterest a 10-Minute Training Session
Okay.
Ready to start fixing that chaotic Pinterest feed?
Give me ten minutes.
Create three to five boards based on things you genuinely want to see more often.
Pick ONE of them.
Search Pinterest for that topic — or head over to one of my related boards if paper crafting, junk journaling, scrapbooking, card making, DIY crafts, color palettes or creative inspiration are among your interests.
Now start browsing.
But here's the rule:
Don't save everything.
Look for the things that give you that little spark:
Ohhhhh.
That's beautiful.
I want to try that.
Those colors!
Why didn't I think of that?
YES. MORE OF THIS.
Save those.
Try saving 10 or 20 genuinely inspiring pins to your new board.
Then do it again with another topic you love.
You aren't trying to manipulate Pinterest or trick anything. You're simply being more intentional about how you use it. Instead of hoping Pinterest magically guesses what inspires you, you're giving it clues.
Don't Turn Pinterest Into Another Digital Junk Drawer
There is one little danger in all this.
You can get VERY good at collecting inspiration...
…and never actually use any of it.
Ask me how I know. 😂
Your beautifully organized Pinterest boards shouldn't become the digital equivalent of that drawer where the batteries, mystery keys, tape, old receipts, thumbtacks and three things nobody recognizes go to die.
Visit your own boards. That's why you're making them!
The next time you sit down to scrapbook and don't know where to begin, open your scrapbook inspiration board.
Making a card? Browse the cards you've already saved.
Starting a new junk journal? Look at your favorite junk journal ideas.
Can't decide what colors to use? Open your color palette board.
Have an afternoon free and want to make something? Open Crafts I Actually Want to Make.
Pinterest isn't just for discovering ideas. It's wonderful for remembering the ideas you've already discovered.
Past You did all that work collecting beautiful things.
Let Present You use them.
Come Rummage Through My Pinterest Boards
If you're ready to start creating your own dream Pinterest feed, you certainly don't have to start from scratch.
I've been pinning for a LONG time.
My Pinterest page has thousands of ideas spread across boards for junk journal printables, scrapbooking, paper crafts, card making, free printables, creative quotes, color palettes, DIY projects, handmade gifts, holiday crafts, craft room organization, planners, upcycling and lots more.
Some of the pins are mine. Many are wonderful ideas I've discovered from other creators over the years.
And some are simply things that made me stop scrolling and think:
YES. MORE OF THIS.
So go rummage!
Find one of my boards that matches something you'd like to see more often.
Open it.
Peruse.
Save the things you genuinely love to your own boards.
Then wander into another one.
You can browse my Color Palettes when you need color inspiration, dig through Junk Journal Printables, hunt for treasures in Free Printables for Paper Crafters, explore Paper Craft Projects, browse Scrapbooking and Card Inspiration, find your next project in DIY & Crafts Best of the Best, or give your creative brain a little boost with my Creative Quotes.
And if you like the kinds of things I collect and create, follow me on Pinterest so my newest tutorials, printable paper crafts, color inspiration, creative ideas and occasional Pinterest surprises have a chance to find their way into your home feed too.
Build a Pinterest Feed You Can't Wait to Open
Here's my challenge for you.
Go make ONE new Pinterest inspiration board today.
Just one.
Give it a purpose.
Maybe it's:
Color Palettes I Love.
Maybe it's:
Junk Journal Ideas I Want to Try.
Maybe it's:
Creative Quotes I Need to Remember.
Then go find 10 things you genuinely love.
Not things you kinda like.
Not things that are vaguely relevant.
Not things you think you should save.
Things that make your creative brain say:
YES. MORE OF THIS.
Save them.
Tomorrow, save a few more.
When Pinterest shows you something wonderful, don't just scroll past it.
Tell Pinterest:
Yes. You got that one right.
Over time, you're not merely collecting pins.
You're creating a visual library of the colors, projects, words, techniques, ideas and beautiful things that inspire you.
You're giving Future You somewhere to go when she doesn't know what to make next.
And you're teaching Pinterest a little more about what makes you you.
So if your Pinterest feed is currently a chaotic combination of zucchini bread, celebrity kitchens, bizarre gadgets, random viral products and three lonely craft ideas...
You know what to do.
Go teach Pinterest what you actually want to see.
And when you find something that makes you stop and think, “YES. MORE OF THIS”?
Save it.
