My Pinterest Account was Hacked

Not related whatsoever, just plain adorable. Available as a wallpaper here.

I was playing around on Pinterest from my Kindle Fire Sunday evening.  I went to sleep, woke up Monday, and sometime in the late morning went to Pin something…..and a new board had been made.  One that I most definitely had not made.

I immediately opened up my profile page on Pinterest, found my boards and clicked Edit on the imposter board.  It said I had made it.  Knowing this was false, I quickly deleted the board and the only pin that was inside it, and changed my password.

Nothing happened until yesterday, I received an email from Pinterest saying that I was having trouble logging in and giving me the option to change my password.  I was having no such trouble.  Luckily this hacker did not have my email password, so I’m not too worried about that.  Although I think I will change it anyway.

My next step was to contact Pinterest and report this activity.  Unfortunately it seems this either hasn’t happened to anyone yet, or they haven’t had enough complaints.  I could find the topic anywhere or the option to state what my problem was in the contact form.  I still haven’t heard a response from Pinterest, probably because it was sent to the wrong department or something!

I’m writing this to alert you, I’m sure it won’t happen the same way twice, but just incase.  The fake board was called “MUSTTRY5” and included only one pin that had a photo of a Before/After Weight Loss and a semi-long description about “how I lost weight”.  Which if you’ve seen any of my fitness pins, they never include stuff like that!  So WARNING!  If you saw that, or see it anywhere, be very careful what you pin!!  Also, be careful what you click on, I have NO IDEA how this person got my Pinterest password/account info because I don’t use Pinterest to log into anything online.  And I only log into Pinterest from 2 places, soooo?!

Now, I know I wrote that I cleaned my Pinterest boards a few months ago, well now I am cleaning out boards I “follow” and only keeping a minimum of those.  Some aren’t even active anymore.  There are a bunch that I obviously started following 2 years ago because a several were food related!  (I don’t follow anything besides gluten-free boards anymore)  Anyway…so maybe one of those boards or even a newer board was part of the problem.  Its just a good idea to do some spring cleaning online every now and then.  Change up what pins I see.  That kinda thing.

When I finish the great Pinterest cleanup, I thought it would be fun to highlight some of my favorite pinners or pin boards.  Just a thought, that gives me a semi-deadline and goal besides just deleting stuff I don’t care about anymore.

I hope this doesn’t happen to you, it was no fun!

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• How to Make Your Company Pinterest Account Stand Out (business2community.com)
• Pinterest Drives More Traffic to Publishers Than Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit Combined (mashable.com)
• How to deactivate your Pinterest account (techhive.com)

Have you checked my Pinterest boards lately?

I’ve been doing some updates recently to my Pinterest boards.  Sometimes I think I have too many, but then I can’t decide what to cut out!  Do you have this problem?  And then I want to see all my boards, but my screen just isn’t big enough!  Oh the frustration!  Anyway, I’ve moved some stuff around and added a few new boards that I just wanted to share with you all 🙂

1.  DIY Kids & DIY Baby, Used to be 2 separate boards, but there just weren’t enough in both to keep them separate anymore!

2.  Nails, I was actually going to scrap this board completely, then I got like 20 new followers in a few days, I had no idea it was so popular!

3.  Painting Inspiration, I’ve been craving a good long painting session for awhile lately, but school is just keeping all painting fun at bay!

4.  Photoshop Tips, if you work with Photoshop AT ALL or want to improve your photography, you gotta check out these tips!

5.  TED Talks, my newest board- very entertaining as well as educational, if you have time to watch clips as short as a few minutes, up to about 30mins max!  Always something fun.  Find TED Talks on Netflix too!  I love HeadGames and SmartLaughs.

When you have some time, drop on by my Pinterest boards and check out these new finds!  I am always adding new pins to some of my more popular boards: DIY Home, DIY Refashions, and DIY Sewing Clothes to name a few!

Related articles

• Confession: I Want A New View with Pinterest (christinadesignsart.wordpress.com)
• on Pinterest: ‘DIY for later’ by Despina Sfakiotaki (bloesem.blogs.com)
• DIY: Paint Chip Dry Erase Calendar (barelyorganizedchaos.com)
• August Pinterest Challenge (fattiedelights.com)
• Pinterest Users Are More ‘Loyal’ Than Facebook Fans (prweb.com)
• Pinterest Love (orgasmafoodie.wordpress.com)

Confession: I Want A New View with Pinterest

 

Lately I have been spending so much time deleting random Pinterest boards that I somehow have found myself to be following.  I assume many of these random boards are related to a “Follow All to enter this giveaway.”  I can’t stand those, why do I have to follow them all?  I’m still considered a follower if I just pick the ones I might actually enjoy.

You’ve all heard my thoughts on Twitter follows in a previous Confession post, but if you didn’t see it/can’t remember, read about it here.  I’m beginning to think similarily with my Pinterest.  I have never been one to “follow back” just because someone started following me.  I love Pinterest and want to look at quality content, so sorry if I don’t want to see images from your “Glamping” album because I have no interest there.

When I first started Pinterest I wasn’t gluten free, so I followed tons of recipe boards.  Now I find I have no use for “breads”, “pasta”, etc boards.  So a quick unfollow and I feel so much better!  While I am on said person’s board, I see I’m also following a myriad of boards I have no interest in, let alone ever even popup in my feed.  I am following too many boards, I never see everything!  So I am condensing.

I feel kinda guilty about it, but I unfollowed an Etsy board.  As someone who is hoping to sell their items and would love the joy of seeing a bracelet (find some here at my Etsy store!) pinned and repinned on Pinterest, I feel bad to unfollow a board that shares any awesome Etsy items.  However, thats all I see sometimes!  I wish those Etsy Handmade boards were more specific, but thats also so hard to regulate when you have like 50+ (or worse, like 500+) people posting to a board about whatever they want.  How does someone moderate a thing like that?  I suppose I could have my own boards, and share specific items like that, but I also hate having a million boards that people and/or myself aren’t even interested in.

After stopping following a few of the Etsy Handmade boards, I see so much more content!  But one thing I can’t decide, which DIY / Crafts boards should I keep following?  I must be following like 20 of those boards, but I only ever see a few of the same boards posting content, and some of it isn’t even all that “new”, even though most of it claims to be “genius!”  But thats another Confession altogether!  The big multi-contributor boards are the places that are constantly getting posted to, but I really don’t know how relevant some of these ideas are to DIY.  For instance, “Cleaning with Vinegar” is not what I would consider DIY or Crafts, and yet its in that board.  And while recipes are a type of craft, they belong under Recipes.  Know what I’m sayin?

Enlisting your help!  What do you think of these boards?  Keep?  Or unfollow??

DIY & Crafts – 5,000+ contributors!  96,000+ pins.  yowza   (basically takes over my feed)

Do It Yourself Today – 700+ contributors, 14,000+ pins

Budget Friendly DIY – 14 contributors, 176 pins.  must be fairly new

Getting Crafty – 30+ contributors, 3,900+ pins

Create – Just decided to unfollow but am so shocked by one of these pins.  I am sharing because I cannot be the only one who thinks someone’s political agenda was swept up into her mostly DIY board.

Getting Crafty & DIY – 30+ contributors, 3,900+ pins

Share Your Crafts – almost 800 contributors, 2,900+ pins

Mod Podge Rocks! – 125+ contributors, 2,500+ pins

Etsy Handmade Favorites- Group Gallery of Art & Jewelry  – I am also a contributor + 1,800 other people that rarely stick on topic, I’ve also only shared 1 time, and it was on accident. 28,500+ pins    (after looking at this, seriously considering making my own board and only inviting people who will stick to the topic)

 

After searching through my feed at 2 very different times (morning and night), the majority of pins comes from the 1st link: DIY & Crafts and the Etsy Handmade Faves boards.  They might have to go…at least for a time!

PS. I’ve added a few new items to my Facebook page’s photo albums, some of which are NOT on Etsy yet still for sale!

Related articles

• Pinterest Inspiration (thehandmadeswap.com)
• Why I (finally) took an interest in Pinterest (popcorntheblog.com)
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Stealing is Stealing and its NOT OK!

I’ve only been blogging for less than a year, and certainly not consistently.  That being said, its been brought to my attention these past few months about the INSANE amounts of intellectual property that is being stolen on a regular basis by various websites, many of which are claiming to “find” tutorials or do “roundups” of which are un-sourced.  Now we all know when you say “found” you really mean “stole” and manipulated it to be whatever you wanted.

How many people are aware of some of the many sites that are doing this?  I’ll admit I was in the dark about how important watermarking and logo placement was until this whole thing just became glaringly obvious.  That said, I am reluctant to share some of my projects or tutorials with the world here, if they might just end up in the hands of thieves.  In fact I’m trying to think up a way to keep certain sites from being able to access my page at all.  I think thats possible.

http://guang.taobao.com/   Chinese website that steals your tutorials and its almost impossible to find a way to contact them to take it down.
http://www.saifou.com/   “Inspiring Images” that don’t link back to their sources.
http://www.repiny.com/   Images are there and ready for you to pin to Pinterest, again with no links to the original source.
http://www.usefuldiy.com/diy-nautical-necklace/   This website is blatantly stealing, the images are watermarked and yet there is no link back to the source.  THIS is why its important not to put all the steps into one image!!
http://handmadera.blogspot.com/2012/04/braid-necklace-diy.html   Oh hey, where did this come from?  Because I know its not yours!!

And last but not least, there are plenty more stealing tutorials out there, Handimania, I don’t even WANT to link to their site!  But I want you ALL to know, stealing someone else’s tutorial, images, content, words, photos, and ideas is STEALING!  And it is wrong!  And we shouldn’t stand for it!!

PS.  Are you a handmade artist?  Do you think you’re safe?  Because you’re not!

Watermarking with your logo, your website, etc is incredibly important!  Learn how to do it!  There are a bazillion tutorials online to help you!  Here are some of my favorites: Add automatic group watermarks by Craftionary, Add a Copyright Watermark by PhotshopEssentials, Video on Youtube by Jen Swedhin, Create in Photoshop by PhotographyBlog, How to Watermark without Photoshop by ArtsyFartsyMama.  Figures, I can’t find the one I used, regardless, these all give great instructions and videos really help, plus if you don’t have Photoshop, no excuse!  Don’t make it easier for someone to steal from you.  Also, there is no shame in pasting your watermark right over your image subject!

And to go along with how insanely cranky and frustrated this whole talk makes me, I posted a comment to the Handimania Facebook page today for their “Ask us Anything! Monday” of which there are absolutely no answers, but like 20 questions.  Someone said “where do you find the instructions for things you find on pinterest? I always see awesome pics of the finished products, but I can never find the instructions.”  So naturally, I thought I would help out and give an answer: “The instruction are with the actual tutorial on the site they stole the content from.”  As of 10:20pm EST that answer has been on the site for 9 hours.  Soon after this, another brave soul made a similar comment.

I really think if we all spread the word, maybe more people, and maybe the people who don’t understand copyright infringement, will start to understand that its not ok to encourage this type of behavior.  That stealing is stealing regardless of where or how its done.  Just because you can’t hold it in your hand, doesn’t mean it wasn’t taken from somewhere without permission or without giving credit where it is due!

To make it easy for those of you who would like to share this message, I have made 2 screenshots of the above mentioned Q&A and already pinned them to some of my Pinterest boards.  I would LOVE if you would repin them: http://pinterest.com/pin/212443307395164061/  (currently located in my Digital Scrapbooking board and includes both mentioned comments)   &   http://pinterest.com/pin/212443307395164142/   (which only includes my answer and is located in my DIY Projects board).  I WILL be spreading these pins along my other boards, on my Twitter account, and to any other blogger I can.  You don’t have to be a blogger or DIY-er or Handmade-maker to support this and say no to stealing.  Every share could make a difference!

I don’t believe in STEALING content from other DIY-ers and bloggers. Do you? If you agree that stealing is stealing and we should give credit to ALL the amazing people who take the time to show us how to make amazing things, SHARE THIS PIN! Tell sites like #Handimania that its NOT OK to take what doesn’t belong to them!!! #stealing #intellectual_property #stolen #content #diy #blogging #handmade #crafts #facebook

The website #Handimania STEALS other bloggers tutorials and steals photos without giving proper credit to the creator. Help me tell them, STEALING IS STEALING, we are NOT ok with you taking whats not yours! REPIN THIS and lets make sure they know we won’t accept this!!! #stealing_content #intellectual #property #stolen #thief #handmade #diy #crafts #blogging #bloggers

Refashion Fridays: Fabric Paint

So I have recently tried out fabric paint as an experiment for the “color-blocking” I’m going to be doing on a refashion.  I didn’t want to do it without first trying it out, so now I have and I love it!  I wish I liked the shirt more though haha!  But now I am confident I can do it on my latest real refashion, it will be a great tutorial for you guys too!

Not only does she show you how to make a baggy sweatshirt fitted, she adds glitter letters! By la vie en rose

Oh look at that cool glitter heart….hint hint By WobiSobi

DIY Glitter Heart Pillow by High on DIY

JoAnn Fabrics Fabric Paint & Glitter Refashion

DIY Watercolor Paints Tshirt by this heart of mine

Love these refashions?  Check out my Pinterest boards for diys, refashions, recipes, inspirations, my creations, and more!  Don’t forget to visit the featured blogs!

Refashion Fridays: Tshirts

I’ve been going through many of my tshirts to look for a way to refashion them so I actually wear them.  Like many of you, I have collected a bunch of tshirts through the years, many of them too big to actually wear in public, even though they look pretty cool.  So I’m trying some ways to make them fitted, add fringe, or cutouts.  Here is my round-up of inspirations!

DIY Tshirt to Cardigan video by Mark Montano

No Sew Halter from a tshirt by Wobisobi

Men’s Shirt to Fitted Tshirt Inspiration by Hot Diggity Blog!

Tshirt to Ruffle Shirt Refashion by Melly Sews

DIY Tshirt Cutout Weaving & Braiding by Bunte Freunde

DIY Drape Neck Halter from a Tshirt video by Whitney Sews – I actually tried this and ran into a problem. Will share with you next week and with ideas for what to do next.

So what do you think?  Are you interested in trying any of these?  Check out my Pinterest boards to see my DIY Sewing Clothes and Refashion boards, for more ideas.

Sorry I Haven’t Been Too Active Lately

Just want to say even though I want to be more active on the blog, the biggest reason I haven’t been is because I am getting ready for my sister’s baby shower(s) and its basically consuming all my time when I am not working, or trying to work on my jewelry.

2 weeks left then the baby showers will be over, and I can start focusing more heavily on the blog, some DIYs, and some refashions I’ve been dying to try:

I already have the lace ready, just need to pick a shirt!
Lace Insert DIY by DIY & Craft Tutorials

This doesn’t look super hard, I could just try it!
Peplum Refashion by Merrick’s Art

Zipped Up Sweater- Sounds fun!
Zipped Refashion by Cotton & Curls

I’ve already chosen the sweater, even have it measured!
Sweater Skirt by Fashion Blog

And then I will also be preparing for school to start on April 1st!  Lots on my plate this spring, but I am confident it will be very exciting and I will continue to share my handmade work and anything I DIY with you all!

Don’t forget to enter the Kickin the Winter Blues $1000 Cash Giveaway!!  You could win $500 in CASH- multiple winners to receive other amounts!

 

Refashion Fridays: Lace Appliques

Is anyone else obsessed with appliques?  They can completely alter a piece of clothing or other piece of fabric with just a few stitches or the heat of an iron!

A reverse applique Lace Inset that I can’t wait to try! by DIY & Craft Tutorials

Lace appliques to any shirt take it to a new classy level! by The How-To Gal

Lacey/Doily Sweatshirt Appliques by A Beautiful Mess

A clutch with some added lace by Ricochet & Away

Crochet Applique by Dixie DIY

Didn’t really mean to make this all about lace appliques, but they are pretty, aren’t they?

See these and more refashions on my Pinterest boards.

Enjoy your weekend!!!

Confession: I followed you on Twitter because I wanted to win a giveaway

Its true.  I don’t have a clue what to do with Twitter, the only reason I set up an account in the first place was because I wanted to enter a giveaway a few more times.  Now the only thing I use Twitter for is to enter giveaways.

Sometimes I get 3 more entries just for retweeting something.  Rock on.

So what if I have to “follow” 20 new Twitter accounts that I know nothing about, I just got 20 more entries!

I never pop on there to read anything anyone has to say.  I can barely find anything of interest on there in the first place!  All those hashtags that I really didn’t get for the longest time (until I read these books about Pinterest- these are the books that inspired this post a long time ago lol- still doing it!), tagging people with the @ even if I didn’t know if they existed….who needs it?

Tonight I am taking a stand!  I am “unfollowing” any Twitter account:

• that I don’t know
• that isn’t a handmade Etsy store
• that isn’t a blog I follow
• that doesn’t have a description or link to a blog I know
• that has anything to do with coupons
• that has anything to do with “mommy blogging”

Any questions?  I’m sure you do, so let’s break it down.

1. Why follow a person that I don’t truly know?  Just because you and I are on Facebook together doesn’t mean that we need to follow each other’s every account.  I follow this same rule with Pinterest, why shouldn’t I with Twitter?
2. I want to support other Etsy stores, or handmade artists, so I want to keep them
3. So many blogs that I already follow, I should only keep the ones I truly like (or even read- to see the list, check out the side bar!)
4. If you don’t have a description for your Twitter profile, what are you doing?  Killing your brand obviously, even I have a description with links!
5. If you’re just a regular person, refer to #1.
6. All those people out there who starting clipping coupons like mad, printing them offline and doubling them up in the stores.  Guess what, you ruined it for the rest of us, so many stores around me now refuse online coupons AT ALL.  Thanks for that peeps.
7. Besides, why are you hoarding 15 bottles of shampoo just because you got them for 50 cents each?  Who really needs 50 boxes of pasta?  That’s such food waste, you shouldn’t be on a TV show, you should see a mental health professional.
8. And mommy blogging….LOL I’m not a mom!  I like to read about kid’s crafts and activities because I am about to be an aunt for the first time and I like to pin all sorts of crafty projects, kids stuff, and baby stuff for the future.  However, I don’t need to see all that.

So, if you follow me and now you’re wondering WHY?  Here are a few reasons to continue:

1. I still enter giveaways and tweet about them, I just won’t be following a bunch of extra accounts
2. I do auto post tweets from my Facebook page: Christina Designs Art, so all my blog posts and anything I share from FB will be there (other art, inspirations, my handmade items, etc)
3. I think I might start retweeting what other handmade artists post….sounds like a good idea?
4. We’ll see what else, maybe I might finally get the hang of posting photos or something.

If you’re one of the people I dropped, don’t be offended- I might find you again someday 🙂

I’ve linked this post up to this Tuesday Party:

Today I Turned 30

 

Today, 1/23/2013, is my birthday!  I turned 30 today 🙂

• I worked at JoAnns, 8:45am-2:00pm (I hate being up early)
• Talked with customers about hand felting – YouTube
• Sold a ton of fleece remnants to customers who make blankets for hospitals and the homeless
• Visited the boyfriend, his parents, and their dog, Daisy
• Watched some Food Network with the boyfriend
• Left and headed to the Post Office to mail my paintings I sold a few days ago (yay! happy homes!)
• Carryout dinner with the family from Biaggi’s Italian which has an awesome Gluten Free menu!
• I had the margherita pizza, decent thin crust with good toppings flavor, typical small pizza size
• For dessert, chocolate cheesecake and original cheesecake!
• I made the gifts for my sister (we’re twins) and my Mom (whose birthday was the 15th) – upcoming tutorial after I take more photos!
• I end the day with blogs to read, Pinterest to cruise, and some Friends on tv!