How Our E-Cards Are Born: A Journey with an AI That Can Read Images

Have you ever wondered how the beautiful, unique images on our e-cards are made? While some designs start with a sketch, many now begin with a fascinating collaboration between a human idea and a powerful creative partner—Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Today, we're taking you behind the scenes to show you exactly how three of our latest floral birthday cards were created using cutting-edge AI tools.

Step 1: The Idea and the AI-Generated Prompt

Every AI image starts with a "prompt," which is a detailed text description guiding the AI on what to create. But what if you could create a prompt from an existing image?

For this process, we didn't write the prompt from scratch. Instead, we used an incredible app called Animagic, which is an AI that can read images. By giving it an inspirational picture, it analyzes the contents, style, and composition, then generates a highly detailed text prompt. This was the prompt it gave us:

"A watercolor birthday card featuring a bouquet of colorful poppies in a blue vase. The background is a soft, pastel color with splashes of pink, purple, and orange. The flowers are arranged in a vase, with the center of the vase being the focal point. The bouquet consists of a variety of flowers, including pink, yellow, and white, with delicate petals and small, delicate leaves. The vase itself is a light blue color, and the flowers are drawn in a realistic style with soft shading and vibrant colors. at the bottom of the image, the words 'Happy Birthday to you' are written in a cursive font, adding a touch of elegance to the card."

Step 2: Bringing the Vision to Life with Canva AI

With our expert-level prompt in hand, we moved to Canva's AI image generator.

First, we chose the "Smart" style and a 4:3 aspect ratio. The result was this beautiful, dreamy poppy bouquet with a soft, watercolor feel.

Next, we wanted to see what would happen if we changed the artistic style. Keeping the exact same prompt, we switched the style to "Vector." This produced a card with cleaner lines and bolder colors, giving it a more modern and graphic look.

Step 3: One Small Change, a Whole New Bouquet

The true power of AI is how quickly you can iterate on an idea. What if we wanted roses instead of poppies? We simply edited the prompt and changed a single word: "poppies" became "roses." Just like that, the AI generated this stunning bouquet of watercolor roses, maintaining the same overall style and composition.

The Final Human Touch

You might have noticed the original prompt asked the AI to write "Happy Birthday." While AI is brilliant at creating images, it often struggles with writing legible text—the letters can be warped or misspelled.

This is where the human element is essential. We use Canva's built-in editing tools to carefully remove the AI-generated text and replace it with our own clear and beautifully designed "Happy Birthday" message. It’s the perfect example of how the best results come from combining the raw power of AI with a human's creative eye for detail.

We hope you enjoyed this peek into our creative process! This blend of technology and artistry allows us to create endless designs to help you share joy with your loved ones—completely free.