Love Your Punches

A while back, Nat posted, It's hip to be square. I am going to confess, I didn't give it a go but having recently rediscovered my own square punch  ( rediscovered, as it has been hiding! ), I am going to show you what I did.

I have one of those 2 sizes square punch made by Creative Memories that an agent persuaded me I can't live without. It turns out, I didn't use it much.  I was fortunate she didn't persuade me to go the way of CM too! All those expensive albums...

Today I am using papers from Crate Paper Storyteller collection, DIY Thickers and some Studio Calico Wood Veneer shapes.

What did I do first ? You guessed it, punch a lot of squares out of the patterned papers. My squares are 1 1/2".

I wanted to display the papers in a grid but decided to go diagonally so I marked a few grid lines diagonally.

I decided to use twine as grid lines.  To make it more interesting, I tied some bows along the twine and only to mark out a selection of lines rather than every single grid lines.

I apply a thin line of glue ( I used diamond glaze ) along the marked line and glue the twine.

In a clear area of the layout, I added some stickers and embellishments which forms my title area.

Next I added some photos and some jewels.

And there you go, a layout about my son's trip to Greece earlier this year with school.  I haven't got a lot of story to tell so the journalling is factual and to the point.

As I was playing around with the squares, I noticed that they look like presents all stacked up. This resulted in the next layout. I was impressed with all the wands at the Harry Potter Studio tour, all perfectly boxed, labelled and stacked up to the rafters...All Stacked Up.

Lastly, I have a layout where the squares are in a conventional grid arrangement. I took the photo on the first day of school but as the new school year is pretty much like another,  I decided to make Yr 8 as an end of school year reflection layout about my son. We still have another week to go so I will reserve my journalling for later.

So, what do you think ?  Should you let those square punches out to play ?