layout help

I am moving onto the 2nd item on my to-do list which is the snails trail blocks from my month in the We Bee Learning bee.

If just use the blocks I have i get this. I am thinking of adding a 4 inch border to the sides in red or grey

Or I could add one more and get this. I would do a smaller border

Should I keep the middle bits all one colour like the pics above or just randomly place them out  like this. 

Quite frankly the whole thing is giving me a headache!

thanks for the help :)