How and Why You Should Give Twitter Lists Another Go

May 15th, 2012, in Tips and Advice
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Should I give twitter lists another go?

It’s a question I aksed myself towards the end of last year, as my twitter feed grew and grew with no real signs of stopping. After a little bit of pondering I thought that the Christmas/NewYears break was a good chance to bite the bullet and do it. So here we are, a few months down the track, and I’m here to share my experiences with re-looking at twitter lists.

My main motivation for trying to use lists again was the fact that I follow two types of people: There were people I follow, who make my feed interesting, and there are people I follow that I am actually friends with, and communicate with regularly. People who, if you miss a tweet, you are missing out on a part of that person’s life you care about, and you also loose the momentum of the conversations. These are people who I care about and therefore want to see everything that’s happening to them. I realised I was missing tweets from these important people, and I wanted a way to make sure I always saw their tweets. Twitter lists seems like the easiest way to do that.

This is the process I went through to give lists another go:

  1. Delete all previous lists
  2. Start from scratch and make the titles for new lists. Try to make them specific & meaningful.
  3. Go through ALL the people you follow and asign people to lists (good chance to cull people you’re no longer interested in following as well!!)
  4. Go through your @ mentions, to check you have assigned all relevant people you talk with
  5. Add lists to a list keeping tool

Things to remember before you start:

  1. Lists don’t have to be definitive. And by that I mean that just because you have a list called “People I’ve Met” doesn’t mean you have to have every person in your twitter feed who you’ve met in real life in that list. It’s your list, and you can make it however you want. I originally used lists as a way of categorising people. Every person I followed was in a list, and really that seems good if you things to be just so, and if you want to read about certain categories (it would be quite useful if you used twitter for multiple reasons and needed to keep track of different pars of your online life). But for me, this wasn’t important, and so I needed to break away from that thinking, and remember that the list doesn’t have to be ‘complete’. Some people will be listless, and some people *could* be in lasts, but aren’t.
  2. Your lists are flexible- they should (and will) change over time)
  3. Not everyone has to be in a list

Step By Step:

These are the new twitter lists that I created. I chose just a few topics that covered the people I MOST wanted to stay in touch with. For me I chose “Crafty” for the people who inspire me with ideas, “I’ve Met You!” for people I’ve met at blog meets etc. “Local Tweeps” is for people that live in the same area as me, whether I’ve met them or not. “Collaborators” is for people who I work on blogs/websites/jobs/etc with. “Friendly Peeps” are just people who I seem to have regular converstations with on twitter who don’t fit into any other category. And finally, “IRL” is obviously just people I know in real life! I save this for close friends, not just people I’ve met before.

After I’ve created the lists I’m happy with, I start going through the people i follow. I had got myself to a stage where managing my twitter was too hard, so part of this process was CULLING people who I wasn’t interested in anymore, or who posted annying stuff like just links etc.

When you’re going through the people you follow you will most likely have the problem of deciding what to do with people who fit into more than one list. What you do is up to you, but I decided to put people into no more than two lists. So if someone lived close to me, was a friend in real life, and posted lots of crafty things, I wouldn’t put them into all three (four really!) lists. I might choose “IRL”, and “Crafty”. If they didn’t post crafty things that often, I might JUST put them in “IRL”. Remember that the point of this is to streamline your twitter reading. You don’t want to jumble it up and read one person’s updates many times over!

Once I’d gone through all my followers and either unfollowed them, added them to a list, or left them alone (yes, you CAN leave people who don’t fit into anything!!), I had to set up a way or viewing them. On my mac I used Tweetdeck to follow each list, and the Twitter app to follow my whole feed, mentions, and direct messages. How you decide to use it is totally up to you, I just found using the two apps worked best for me.

So there you go. That’s my pretty simple guide to how and why you might like to use twitter lists again!

 

Everyday Creative Challenge: An Important Memory

May 2nd, 2012, in The Everyday Creative
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How did you go with the last everyday creative challenge? Did you get your dining room table create-a-fied?! Well, now it’s time for a new challenge!

For this challenge find a special note, letter or drawing that you want to keep, and find a way to display it.

I’ll be using a postcard that Luke’s Nanna & Pa sent us from Paris. It’s important to us because A) We love Paris, and b) Nanna passed away last year, and this was the last thing she sent us.

 

Note: If  you’re using a really personal message, you might like to display it somewhere where guests won’t see it. Maybe in your bedroom- somewhere like that.

Tutorial: Photo Covered Letter

April 26th, 2012, in Furniture Revamps

I’m pretty proud of the photo covered letter tutorial I’ve over at And Sew We Craft. Check it out! There are heaps of other home decorating posts this week to inspire you!

Scrapbooking: Use Up Scraps Challenge!

April 22nd, 2012, in Papercraft
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The other page I did for the online crop, was this page. The challenge was to use up your scraps from the crop to create a page. I didn’t have many scraps from the crop, but I’ve done quite a few pages lately, and had heaps of scraps just sitting on my table waiting to be cleared, so I used them!

For the title of this page I did a little survey over on the FB, so if you’re keen to name more of my scrapbooking pages, or get on with the goss there, then check it out. :-)

Scrapbooking: Baby’s First Bath

April 22nd, 2012, in Papercraft
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Last weekend was the online scrapping crop with Shimelle, over at Shimelle.com.

I didn’t get a chance to play along that weekend, cause we were visitng Luke’s nonna, Zio & Zia, but I did get a few challenges in during the week!

The challenge for this one was to use yellow, grey and one other colour. I chose Aqua, because funnily enough, grey, yellow & aqua are Lior’s colours (if he was a girl it would be peach, yellow & grey).

I used the mini brocade overlay to add the colour, but not make it too bold. I used a lot of plain papers as well- yellow and grey cardstocks I had on hand. This stamp that I used as an embellishment in the title is one of my favourite stamp sets at the moment. It’s by American Crafts, and it’s called terrace.

ANZAC Day Printables + Craft

April 20th, 2012, in Papercraft
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Next Wednesday, April 25th, is ANZAC day. ANZAC day is an important day to remember the soldiers who fought at Gallipoli in World War I. Anzac Day marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. The acronym ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, whose soldiers were known as Anzacs.

Now that I have a son, I have been thinking about ANZAC day in a new light. What if one day he had to go to war? What if his father had to go to war, and never returned? What if, what if, what if. The sacrifice our soldiers made for us is increadible, and we should be eternally grateful for their bravery, and willingness to protect us.

I like to take the opportunity of ANZAC day to remember soldiers who have fought in all wars as well. Including troops who are currently serving. I have two grandpas who fought in war, and a brother in law who is currently in the army, and I am thankful for their personal bravery, and sacrifice.

Mooo.com.au (soon to change thier name to tinyme.com.au) have released a bunch of ANZAC day printable for you to print out and create with. It’s a great activity for kids, but seeing as Lior is a bit young for craft projects yet I think I’ll print them out to make a poppy pin for me to wear on ANZAC day!

I’ll also be trying out a gluten free, and sugar free ANZAC biscuit recipe, so hopefully they turn out better than last time!

Inspiration For Your Dining Room Table

April 19th, 2012, in The Everyday Creative
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I promised you some inspiration, and here it is! At the moment we’ve got the lego creation sitting there, but I thought any of these were good ideas! Which is your favourite? Do you have anything similar around your home that you could use to brighten up your dining room table?

Don’t forget to share what you end up doing over here!

Table Centerpiece: Photo BoxTable Centerpiece: LegoTable Centerpiece: GlobeTable Centerpiece: BooksTable Centerpiece: Elephants

Everyday Creative Challenge: The Dining Room Table

April 19th, 2012, in The Everyday Creative
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It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these Everyday Creative Challenges, but I am really feeling like I need to think a bit creatively about how I can be creative at home! So we’re starting these challenges up again, so hopefull you, like me, can be inspired to add some creativity to the ‘everday’ parts of our life!

Everyday Creative Challenge: The Dining Room Table.

Maybe it’s the hub of your home, maybe it’s where all the ‘stuff’ gets put before it finds its home, or maybe it’s somewhere tucked away and only gets used when guests come over. It doesn’t matter how you use your dining room table- the challenge today is to give it a spruce up, and decorate the center!

Forget flowers, or bottles of salt, pepper and sauce! Pick something interesting and unusual to add to your table center!

Check back later in the day for some inspiration as I show you what I’ve done to my table center!

 

Rules and Stuff:

Work in the spirit of creativity. If your situation doesn’t fit the challenge, then modify it to suit what you’ve got!

Share your response to the challenge on your blog (or anywhere online), and add a link in the comments so the rest of us can check it out!

As always, a link back is appreciated :-) . Feel free to use the banner above in your blog post if you share what you’ve done!

If you don’t want to share your response online, I would still love to hear about it! Leave a comment, or send me an email.

DIY iPhone Case

April 14th, 2012, in Tutorial
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The crafty stuff I do now a days isn’t premeditated, or planned, it’s more whimsical. I just sort of do it when I can. So yesterday morning when I had a spare moment, I whiped up this cool cover for my iPhone. You can make one too, you just need a few things:

  • Hard cover clear iPhone case (I got mine for $2 on ebay!)
  • Scrapbooking paper (at least 2 1/2 x 5 inches, or 6.5 x 12cm)
  • Scissors
  • Pen

And then it’s this easy to do:

Take your scrapbooking paper and turn it over so it’s the wrong side up. Trace around your iPhone with a pen or pencil.

Cut around the outline. Make sure the edges are rounded. At this point put it into the hard iPhone case to check it fits. Trim if necessary.

Put your paper cutout and your iPhone in the case. Trace around the camera hole in the case. This tracing will be on the right side of the paper.

Take everything out and with a pair of scissors (small embroidery scissors work well for this), or a scalpel knife, cut out the camera hole.

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One of the best parts about an iPhone case like this that you can change it up whenever you like!

If you make one, I’d love to see. :-)

Original Ideas in an Inspired World

April 7th, 2012, in Tips and Advice

This is just a rant. A rumbling of thoughts. It’s not necessarily logical, or thought out- I’m just… wondering, thinking ‘out loud’ as I write. Writing out loud I guess.

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An issue people talk about a lot these days is copyright. About original ideas, stealing ideas, copying, crediting ideas, crediting inspiration, crediting… everything. People are concerned about where ideas and inspiration come from. They’re concerned with their ideas being copied, and people making money from them. This isn’t really a new issue- people have been copying other people for centuries. For probably as long as people have been making stuff, other people have been copying them.

Maybe the problem is just the internet? If I go to France and I see an awesome idea for a necklace, then I come home and making something similar to sell at my local market, or in my online store, that French seller can see what I’ve made because of my blog, or facebook, or other people posting on their blogs or facebook. If I had of done that 20 years ago, that seller in France never would have know.

There’s the question of “should copy other people’s ideas or not”, and then there’s the question of “can we even HELP but copy other people’s ideas?”.

What is an original idea? Something you’ve thought of yourself, right? But what about ALL the things around you that might possibly contribute to your idea? The sky is an awesome shade of blue today, so you mix some colours and put it on your canvas. Your colour choice wasn’t completely your own, was it? Even if you thought the colour of the sky was a nice blue, it just needed a touch more green to make it perfect, you’ve still taken the sky colour and changed it. You’ve added onto something that already exists. I know this seems like a bit of a silly argument, but I feel sometimes like things are getting this way.

When does something move from being one person’s original idea, to such a widely used technique that it’s fair game for anyone. This question is kinda a big deal in nearly ever field I imagine, but particularly in the areas where you have to create things, and particularly in the crafting world, because so many people are online sharing ideas.

To put all of this into context, here’s an example:

I’ve recently been working on a scrapbooking layout that uses concertina folds to hold heaps of photos (see photo below).

Is this an original layout? I certinaly thought about it myself, and came up with it. Originally I had planned to do a big grid, but when I ended up with too many photos for the grid, I tried a few other techniques, until deciding on this one. The concertina idea I first did here, as part of an online challenge. As with a lot of challenges, I scrap-lifted the entire page. That’s what we were meant to do. But once I’d done that was the technique mine to adapt, change, and use? Or was I scrap-lifting that part of the layout again? All over the interwebs now there are dozens of concertina style scrapbooking pages. Was this an original idea from the person who created the challenge?

When I first started this layout, before I started thinking about this, I considered this conertina style a tool in my scrapbooking toolkit. It’s a technique that I plan to use over and over, because it’s an effective way of including way more photos than you can normally fit on a page. But as I started to think about copying etc. I wondered if this was an okay layout. Okay for my personal album, sure, but okay to show on my blog? Okay to submit to a magazine? To what point should I give credit for ideas and inspiration? This layout is considerably different to the one I first saw this technique on. Are techniques okay to copy? At what point does it happen that so many people use this technique it can’t be credited to one person anymore. And like I say above, do I even know that the person who created the layout I saw it off had the original idea? Maybe they saw it on someone else’s page, who knows?!

I guess none of this is important if it’s just in my own album, but when if someone admires this page, and asks me to teach the layout at their local scrapbooking shop. So I go there, and I get paid to show everyone how to make this layout. Should I give credit back to where I first saw the concertina idea, where I first saw a page with four blocks, where I first saw little strips of paper on the sides of photos, where I first saw someone ink the edges of the paper? What if that source isn’t online? Should I saw I learnt about inking edges from a lady, I can’t remember her name, her taught us some cardmaking about 5 years ago?

Or is this page far enough removed from the original layouts I saw all those techniques on that I can safely call it my own. Who’s to say as well that I didn’t just think of this idea myself? Say I did, and I submitted this layout to a magaine, and I didn’t credit anyone. I just made up every single element myself. Then someone sees this and thinks “Hey! I have a layout that has four conertina boxes on it! You must have copied my layout and just removed one of the boxes!”. Umm… no. But who’s to know who created the original idea. Who even cares?

I guess all this thinking out loud leads me to the conclusion that when we make stuff, we need to accept that there are no original ideas. Someone in the world has probably aready thought of it and done it before. It may be an original idea to you, yes, but to everyone? Maybe not. Maybe we’re too worried about copying and copyright and crediting people. On the other hand, maybe I’m not taking this serious enough. It’s okay for ME to say that it doesn’t matter- my creative ideas aren’t my livelyhood. What about the person who rellies of people buying their unique products so that they can pay their bills, and eat.

Is there a happy medium? Is there a line in the sand so we all know when what we’re doing is acceptable, and when it’s not acceptable? Maybe a percentage?