This is a great class. I'm not going to be posting much but I wanted to mention two things that help me. I don't have a great printer so I avoid have blocks of solid colors. I can't afford a new printer so I adjust to what I have and it works well enough but it does mean sometimes have to accept a white background, which I'm fine with. But I suggest looking at your card and judging if your printer is providing the quality is good enough for your color scheme. I cannot, for example, print in large areas of black because I end up with streaking. I don't care for my day-to-day prints, but I want celebration cards to look a little nicer. I buy card stock that is scored down the center so I don't have to worry about figuring out where the middle fold goes. I'm lazy that way. Some of the stock has a slight blush of color or texture would keeps it from looking too stark.
One thing I do on my cards (and I do very few these days) is I add a little graphic and indicate the year and occasion, or the date, because sometimes people keep the card and like that added touch. As I said, I don't do many cards or graphics these days so it's more something I did in the past than I do now.
Thank you for all the good information. I forget some of these "tricks" to make ribbons, scallops, etc. so I am happy to see how you create the effect.