Sister-in-law Number. . .What Number is She??? I'm Losing Track!!!

My husband's sister, Joanie's, birthday is in August, so I needed to get busy and get a card made for her.  I had a two-year-old card kit, purchased at the Paradise Scrapbook Boutique in Chico, CA, that I had been wanting to make up.  Because it was designed as a smaller card than I like to make (silly me), I had to do a little tinkering.  

I had the paper that was in the card kit in my own stash, and I was very glad that I had the same hot pink Wasabi measuring tape, because that provided in the kit got stuck together while wrapped up.  I began by making a new Vanilla cardbase to add another layer and to make it larger than the blue provided, thus I was able to use the blue cardbase for matting both inside and out.  I moved some of the design elements from vertical to horizontal and placed my bird a bit farther to the left allowing for my added petite banner birthday sentiment.  Stampin' Up does not yet have a "Happy Birthday" stamp to fit their Bitty Banner Framelits, so I came up with my own idea to use Microsoft Word's WordArt to make my own wavy banner sentiment.  With a little fiddling, I was able to get it just the right shape and size to fit the die frame. . . I was so excited! ( I see many possibilities in the future!)  I really liked this card's original design, so my re-design creation basically retains the flavor of the original with a bit of tweaking here and there and a few enlarging additions.  I hope Joanie likes my bird's birthday message flown to her across the miles to the Midwest!

Recipe:  SU Pool Party cs. BoBunny Double Dot-Blush Dot. Le Paper Cafe Wasabi measuring tape. SU Bitty Banners Framelits. EK Success Victorian Corner punch. Hug Snug Seam Binding-Limoges Blue. Colorbox Chestnut Roan (distressing). Sentiment: Computer-made for Bitty Banners Framelit). Kit provided: Accu-Cut Bird die #10 (Swallow), Pink pattern paper/chipboard (for bird), Lt. blue cardstock, Pattern papers, Blue button, 1/8" Lt. pink ribbon, mini flower.