Yesterday Lori asked about the Rule of Thirds. Well, I'm no expert but this is what I know. It's a rule used by photographers when composing their photos and artists when composing a picture... and it works just as well when designing a card or scrapbook page.
In your mind's eye you section off your card/page into a 3x3 grid, like a noughts and crosses grid (see right). You have now created four areas, where the lines cross, which will all make good focal points. So, if you're positioning an image or an element on a card, one of these four points would be a good place to start.
To me, yesterday's card was lacking because the image sat in the centre of the card. While there's nothing wrong with this, I felt that, on this particular card, it would have looked better higher up, which would have place the image and ribbon on the top two focal points.
Naturally, rules are made to be broken... as you'll see from the card samples in the next few days!