Back in Time

I have a layout up on the October Afternoon blog today for Jill Sprott's "Clustered Patterned Bits" challenge:

I'm going to give you a peek into my layout creation process here, which took some unusual twists and turns. Here's my step-by-step process:

1. After Jill emailed me the challenge idea, I decided it would be quick and easy to cut shapes with my Cameo so I searched for "shapes" in the Silhouette store. I quickly scanned through what appeared and immediately fell in love with the aptly named "retro shapes." 
2. From there, I decided I wanted to create a layout about "Mad Men." I remembered someone having linked me to the "Mad Men Yourself" feature on the AMC website, so I went there and spent far too long playing with the image options (I tried on several different dresses, accessories, and noses :)). I ultimately decided on the combination seen in the layout above, saved it, and printed it, placing it roughly where I wanted it on my backgound kraft cardstock. 
3. I sized the retro shapes so that four shapes would fit in a 2" square and cut a bunch of shapes out of the Boardroom (woodgrain) paper from October Afternoon's new 9 to 5 collection. 
4. I began arranging the shapes above and below the image until I had them where I wanted them. I glued the shapes down, substituting a 9 to 5 tin pin for one of the circles where the pattern would have overlapped the image.
5. Next, I tucked bits and pieces from the 9 to 5 Miscellany and patterned papers under the top right corner of the image.
6. I added a title created with letter stickers from October Afternoon's Boarding Pass collection (red letters) and letters cut from cardstock with my Cameo (white letters).
7. I printed my journaling out on white cardstock, cut it into strips, and glued them down.

As always, I never know why I'm putting things where they are, I just know when they work. Having finished the layout, however, I can step back and see that I used the woodgrain shapes to lead the viewer's eyes into the image; created Z flow with pattern (woodgrain shapes), color (red embellishment and red title letters), and my journaling strips; and grounded my image with the tin pin and the journaling strips.

So...who else is looking forward to the fifth season of "Mad Men" starting in just three weeks?