Remember the bulletin board you had speckled with interesting magazine articles, photos of places you wanted to visit, a recipe for zucchini-nut muffins and a few swatches of fabric you chose to re-cover your old sofa? That's Pinterest…almost.

Pinterest is a virtual idea board. The free site allows you to collect swatches, photos, articles and ideas from the Internet and put them on a virtual board. You can pull all your ideas on one board, or create a collection of boards, each with its own theme.

Even more unique is that Pinterest is a social network. You can share your boards and even link your Pinterest account to Facebook. Once you pin an idea to your board, others can see what you've pinned and re-pin (similar to reposting) if they want to. Pinned photos or articles are linked back to their original source, which allows for even more networking.

How can a family use Pinterest? Create your free account and then get the whole family involved in finding fun ideas for the following projects: