Working on a Valentine's card

I thought you might be interested how the work is getting done here, at Aleutie Studio. So this is basically how I get from the sketch to the product.

This morning, while drinking coffee, I doodled a very rough cat silhouette in my sketch book, looking like this:



At this stage I don't need it to be perfect, this is just a guideline for the real work that is getting done on the computer. So I made a nasty scan of the drawing and traced it Illustrator with the Pen tool, sort of like this:




I am not used to work in Illustrator, so I actually avoid it any time I can. So I exported the resulting file to the Photoshop, that I knew inside out, and added a transparent scarf to the picture:



Then I put the picture of the cat on the existing template of the valentine's folded card, that I have made yesterday: it included a heart design on the front panel and my logo and Etsy URL on the back:


Now I can print the sample. I always print out at least one sample of each card, to check the colors and to take pictures for the Etsy store. I make all my photos on the floor in front of the patio windows - a place proven to be the brightest spot in my apartment. I use a white or black poster sheet for background and do my best to keep plants out of the frame.

Of course, today Colonel Tiny of Colonel Tiny's Road to the Christmas Tree totally bombed the first photo:



But finally I successfully took a few decent pictures and listed the new card on Etsy.