'Estate' Card Game

Inspired by estate sales and wall decoration, I made this card game based on a class assignment to make a 20-card trading card game. The cards were designed entirely by me using Photoshop and hand-drawn illustrations, as was the assembly of the physical cards. The game was playtested several times by classmates, and rules and mechanics changed iteratively based on each test.

Rules and Gameplay:
Each player starts with and maintains having 5 cards (until the deck
runs out), and whoever has the fewest points in their deck starts by placing any card of their
choosing down, then they pick a new card and make their first real play. The decks are
always laid out facing up so that each person knows what the other person has. When
playing, the cards are placed down in a grid, and must be placed so that vertically or
horizontally each card is touching another with one common element. Placing cards like
this would result in a board that would look almost like Scrabble.
As you place cards, you must place them so that they are adjacent to a different card that
has at least 1 common color/theme. If, when placing a card, both of its colors are already
present in the row you are adding to, you only get 1 point. Otherwise, you get the full points
of the card. If you are able to connect two bridging rows through a card, you get double the
points of the card.
You also can only extend the board in a new direction if you are doing so in the very middle
of a string of cards, meaning that rows need to have an odd number of cards to be bridged
from. However, the very first row must get to 5. This is that the starting person is the first
with the opportunity to change direction, so that people don't end up with zig-zag patterns
to maximize points.
Gameplay would start faster, with points easier to get in the beginning, but as more cards
get placed, it will be harder to place things where they would have a unique theme.
You play until the deck runs out, and then the one with the most points wins. If you are left
with cards you can't play at the end of the game, it's -the v point per card off of your total
score.