Circles!

Many of the layouts I see on the many sites and blogs I follow use circles to create interest.  As my husband often points out, I tend to use lots of squares in my layouts - square and rectangular pictures in layouts that seem to use straight lines.  So I decided to put together a layout that reflects my spin on all those circles I keep seeing.

I also wanted to continue working on using up some of my favorites from my stash.  This paper from We R Memorykeepers fell into that category.  The design with the deer and all the pattern on the diagonal really appeals to me.  But I couldn't figure out how to incorporate it into my layout without destroying the impact of the pattern.  So I decided to put circles and this piece of paper together in a layout.

 It took me almost a week, but I finally came up with a layout I really liked.  I used some deep purple CM tone on tone paper for the background to add a little surprise to the holiday color palette, cut lots of circles from the patterned paper to take advantage of the patterns in the design, more circles out of the solid portions of the patterned papers and even more circles from red and green paper in my stash.  I finished out the circles with some round cardstock embellishments and stickers left over from previous Christmas layouts and a little bling from the CM Enchanted collection.

The diagonal motif in the patterned paper inspired the placement of the clusters of circles across the page.  I also was careful to keep the vertical pattern within my circles.  Here are some closer shots of the clusters of circles.

I'm submitting this layout for the July 1 sketch challenge at Stuck?! Sketches

Have you combined any trends with treasures from your stash to create a great layout that is way outside your comfort zone?  I'd love to see them!