Use it if you've got it!

Good morning lovely friends and readers! As mentioned earlier, I have been playing along with the ladies over at My Scraps and more. The pinterest crop was great for inspiration and lovely chatter. I loved using the same idea and seeing so many takes on it. One of the challenges was to create a page inspired by a child rubiks cube game. Going based on an idea of a square grid, I created this layout, using cut squares as my photo mat.

I had also found this photo on pinterest myself and needed to use it for inspiration, and this felt like the perfect match to combine ideas.

I had so much fun making this. For quite sometime now I have been weighing the idea to share a bit more of my process with you and this deemed a great start! I was never quite a fan of the cricut, too cutesy for my style, so I never invested, and had yet to get a cameo( until I can open it at Christmas...eeek...shhh, hubby told me to get it so he wouldn't get the wrong one). So what's a girl to do when she loves the look of shapes, words, and designs from a lazer cutter.... create her own of course. So I created this shape like so.....

#1: first I cut two 6x6 papers and lined them up at their halfway point stacked on one another, creating the star shape.
#2: Using this star as my guide, I turned my paper facing the blank side, so not to show the pen marks on the paper side, and traced the negative space between each point, alternating patterns of paper as I went( I chose to cut  4 papers, 2 of each).
#3: I lined up all the papers to create a shape similar to my pinterest pinned shape, creating this shape.
#4: Cutting equal sized squared, I created a grid inside the shape as my photo mat.
#5: I than chose to use vellum to place in the triangle shapes to complete the pinned shape. I used my ruler and placed the vellum atop the spaces to trace the EXACT shape needed for each space, as shifting of patterned papers may make them a tad different from one another.
And Voila... I created what I set out to do, and completed the layout until my heart felt it was right!
So there you have it. No pricy lazer cutter, still want similar results, create your own. I just used my imagination, a tiny ruler, and my trusty exacto knife!
 I hope you liked seeing a bit of how my brain works to complete projects!
And speaking of "using it if you've got it" , as I know most of us scrapbookers do, I have a long tucked away bin of stash products. I have been saving it for, who knows, in hopes to sell on ebay(difficult with little to no motivation), to pass to the girls( I still will on some things), but until than I am about to raid it for my Christmas "daily" album. Who says you need to use all new product to create holiday memories! Have a BEAUTIFUL weekend friends!
                                           Brianna