CHAD'S "SIDE-STEP" BIRTHDAY CARD

My son's birthday was this past week, and I chose to make a side-step card for him.  When I began this project, all I knew was what kind of card I would try first--had no other ideas for the design and, as you can see, there are quite a few design opportunities on a card like this.  It took a while to get the window just right, although I wasn't 100% pleased with it.  At first, there wasn't a window frame, mainly because I always confuse myself with whether the inside of the house should be behind the frame or if it should be a "looking outside" scene.  I know it should be a simple and obvious decision, so why do I get confused?  I thought that I would just not use a window frame, but I ended up changing my mind about that.  Of course, it would have helped if I had already put the trees and grass on the card, but those elements hadn't yet arrived to the design process.  Want to know which element on this card came first?  It was the flagpole and sentiment.  Ha!  The stamped sentiment (from "Teeny Tiny Wishes" stamp set) and the oval punches and twine are from Stampin' Up!  For the trees, I rough-cut the trunks and then used Stampin' Up!'s Scallop Circle punch with Pistachio Pudding card stock and This and That Epic Day designer paper (with a Stampin' Dimensional between the two circles) for the tree tops.  The same designer paper was used to die-cut three layers of grass using a grass border die.  The last thing to be added to the card was the bicycle, and it didn't get added until the next day.  If you ask me, it totally completed the card!  I kept thinking that "something" was needed, and it took a while to figure out what that something would be.  As I used a craft knife to cut out the tiny white spaces from the stamped image, I made a deal with myself that I would throw the bicycle in the trash if the knife slipped too far and accidentally cut where it shouldn't.  Having had some success, I decided to not tempt fate by trying to cut between the spokes--they were just too, too tiny.  After everything had been glued in place, the card still needed something--a window frame!  Looking at the card now, I wonder how I could have possibly thought I could get away without one, but I finally was able to see that (thankfully) the frame should be on top of the curtains and wallpaper.  It wasn't as easy as just adhering the frame, though.  Oh, no!  I had to peel the curtains and wallpaper from the Crumb Cake card stock AND from beneath a portion of the grass so that I could trim the designer paper and then move one of the curtain panels closer to the center so they would both fit the window frame.  Fortunately, the few casualties were covered when I re-adhered the window layers to the card, and it's hardly noticeable that a patch of grass is missing.