All occasion card featuring a paper pieced background, a letter collage and a die cut circle embellishment

Loving this technique so I have decided to make my exchange cards for February using it!!  For this one I used letters for my collage.  I dug out a large red envelope and created a black card to fit inside.  I used red paper scraps from my stash to create a paper pieced background.  Next, I found a gray scrap on which I created the collage for my focal element using letter punchies and die cut from my stash.  For this one I chose mainly red, black and white ones.  Again, I used large, medium and smaller letters.  I added some white tissue paper strips to tone down the contrast a bit. To finish it off I used a large letter S which started life as a chipboard letter and had been stripped of its beautiful outer layer.  I coloured it with watercolour crayon, washed it out a bit and added some red watercolour until I was happy with it.  Next, I sealed it with a layer of white glue.  When it was dry I mounted my collage to a dark gray layer.  As I was auditioning it on my card front I wanted to a "bit of something" to add some texture and interest so I layered two  red circle die cuts, die cut a star from the middle and then cut it in half.  I mounted each half to the top and bottom of my collage on opposite edges.  I added two little punchie circles next to them.  That was better!  I adhered this large focal element to my card and finished it off by adding faux stitching to the edges of the half circles with a black marker.    Therese