How I Created my Valentine card

First, I try to get some inspirations from some of my vintage greeting card collection :

I just love the way they look--when I look at them, I try to imagine the sender and the reciever of the cards, what their relationship was with each other, where do they live? What is their favorite food, what do they wear? What books do they like, etc. My imagination takes me far and different characters start to build up in my mind until finally, I start to draw them. And from there, other images comes until I choose one that I will finally work on.

For my Valentine Card, I chose this vintage card as my source of inspiration:

Step 1. Using the image of the tree I made a rough sketch :

Step 2. I finalize the sketch, ink it and scan it in Photoshop .
I also position the text. Here is the scanned image:

Step 3. I color the line art in photoshop
It's easier to change the color combination and correct mistakes when you work digitally.

Step 4. I decided to create a collage of hand sewn skirt, ribbons and laces for the girl's outfit. Here are the hand-sewn skirt and ribbons I made which I then scanned in the card:

Step 5. Here's the final Version of my Valentine Card .
Now I am ready to have it printed. I use a professional printer for this and send them off to various publishers as a promo piece.