Red Birds and Heart with Gingham Ribbon

A pink and red love card for Paula's "balance" card design bootcamp lesson for Operation Write Home.  I used symmetry for balance with evenly spaced ribbons, a centered heart, and a pair of birds.

But my design also has asymmetry, with its vertical weight toward the bottom of the card and its angled sentiment. The birds' positions and the ribbon lengths are also different; to my eye, everything lined up and centered would look too static here  

Thanks again, Paula, for your lessons!  I can see them all in this card - white space, variation (not all hearts or all birds), repetition (ribbons and red shapes), odd numbers, rule of thirds, color harmony (monochromatic), relationship (birds and heart grouping), major-minor-accent colors, and focal point.  It's fun to learn the theory of what makes a design more eye-appealing.

Card details:

• Card stock is Paper Source blossom (pink),  Papertrey Ink (PTI) pure poppy (red), and stripes print from PTI sweet blush (pink) pattern pack.
• Pink-and-red 1/4" ribbon is from my local scrapbook store.  I don't know who made it.
• Dies are PTI heart-2-heart #9, the inner heart from PTI framed out #11, and Elizabeth Craft love.  
• I used a Copic cool gray multiliner to draw the birds' eyes.  Black seemed to be too strong a contrast.  

Created for Operation Write Home, "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." (326)