What's Wrong with this card?

Today I thought I'd talk a little about card composition.  As pretty as this 5 x 7 card is, there's something just a bit "off" about it.  I'll talk about what that is in a minute.  First, how did I make this card?  

The patterned paper and the light pink paper were printed from a digital download - not sure who made it.  The darker pink paper came from my stash.  

The focal panel was made with Stampin' Up! Products.  Here's what I did:

Flower: These were made using a couple of stamps from Stampin' Up!'s Sentiment Rose kit (no longer available).  I stamped the image with Real Red ink onto the pink paper.  The stamp is SO much fun because it basically shades the rose FOR you!  However, as I looked at it, I wasn't happy with how dark it was - wanted the petals to be a bit lighter - especially near the top.  NO PROBLEM!  I squeezed a little ink from my White Pigment Ink Refill onto a stamp block, picked it up with my Water Painter (water brush), and used it to lighten those petals.  Then I took a few very tiny dots of yellow card stock and glued them to the center of my flower.  Before I fussy cut my flower, I realized I wanted to add a bit of that Real Red to a small spot.  NO PROBLEM! (This is why I love Stampin' Up products so much!) I just grabbed my Real Red Stampin' Write Marker and drew in what I wanted to add, knowing the colors would match perfectly! 

Leaves: I stamped my leaves (same stamp set) using Garden Green ink.  Then, I grabbed my Old Olive stamp pad and touched it to a stamp block to transfer a bit of ink to that.  Using my Blender Pen, I picked up some ink from the stamp block and colored in the white parts of the leaves.

"Hello": This time I pulled out my new Thoughtful Moments Hybrid Embossing Folder. I didn't need all of the sentiments, so I just cut a piece of the pink paper that was big enough to cover the word "Hello" with plenty of space around it to allow for the embossing.  Then, before I put the cutting die inside the folder (YES! Emboss and die cut in one pass!), I first lightly inked the sentiment (again with my Real Red ink pad).  Then I snapped the cutting die into the folder, put my paper in place, and closed the folder.  After I ran it through my die cutting machine, the edges of the letters were inked, the letters embossed, and the word cut out - ALL IN ONE PASS!  I LOVE it!  What fun I'm going to have creating sentiments with this fun tool!

Background: As you can see, I layered my background paper on the red paper, then the pink, before gluing it to a white card base.  After gluing flower, leaves, and sentiment to a square white panel, I added it to a red paper mat before gluing it in place.

Border: I took a scrap of the flowered paper, matted it on pink, then white, then red (as you can see).  It needed a bit of extra something, so I pulled a trick I often use and punched three dots from the red paper using an ordinary hole punch.  I added them to the lower right corner thinking to balance the "Hello", but then realized they were really on the wrong size.  All the "weight" was in the upper right corner with that flower, so I really wanted the dots on the lower left.  I couldn't remove the ones on the right, but added them to the left in the hopes of achieving a bit of balance.

NOW, What's Wrong?: Unfortunately, the dots just blend into that busy patterned paper and are hardly seen, so my work of adding them to help balance the focal just didn't work!  What to do???

The Fix: This fix isn't perfect - some things could not be fixed - but it's better:

First, I brought a spot of green down by making another set of leaves to hang out by a strip sentiment that I added to the left side of the border.  This creates a 3rd spot of green on the card and helps move the eye around the card.  Odd numbers are generally preferred in situations like this - and if you look closely, you'll see your eye can draw a triangular shape between the three spots of green.  This "triangle" is part of what helps the eye move around the page. (Somehow they look a lot lighter in color than the ones by the flower, but fortunately that's not the way it looks IRL.)

More white - The sentiment stamped on white cardstock adds another spot of white and helps break up that strong pattern in the paper. Though it would have been better if the white was just a bit bigger, it still helps to bring some white into that space.  It also helps to tie the large white panel into the make as a whole.  

A minor thing is that I realized when I glued my focal in place, one of the leaves pulled away from the flower without my realizing it, leaving a small gap between the stem and the flower!  Once again, I had Stampin' Up! markers to the rescue.  This time I pulled the Garden Green marker from the same set and used it to draw in that stem so it connected to the flower. :)  I wouldn't have dared to do that if I didn't know the colors would match!

To be honest, if I were to make this card again, I would arrange the focal a bit differently.  I would put the flower in the lower right corner of the panel and the "Hello" in the upper left for even better balance.  That's not something I can easily fix without tearing the card apart.  I think I'll just leave it because it's still a pretty card for someone who's not quite as picky as I am! :)