Birthday Ecards:
The Pirate Birthday Ecard Video

Do you want to make your own Pirate Birthday ecard video — or some other kind of birthday ecard? (Or do you just want to borrow mine?)

You can use generic ecards from an online birthday ecard company, but I think it's more fun to put something together that's more original and personal.

Make Your Own Birthday Ecard from Scratch

I made the pirate birthday video below as a birthday ecard for Wendy, the diva party girl, a fellow Site-Build-It business owner and a fan of "Pirates of the Caribbean."

It was a little complicated, but not too bad. (See below for a much simpler way.) I recorded a song with my kids, using original words to an old folk song, "What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor?". I mixed the song using the great freeware, Audacity.

For the animation hack-job, I used parts of a "Pirates" poster and modified it using Paint Shop Pro (similar to Photoshop, but much cheaper), and put it all together using Sony Vegas Movie Studio. It was a little tricky getting the mouths and the words to match up, but it was kind of fun.

The Pirate Birthday Video

Click To Play

Make Your Own Free Birthday Ecards Online

If you want a simpler way to make a birthday ecard, you can use a free online photo slideshow maker, like Rock You. As an example, I used "Rock You" to put together the little slideshow you see below, just by searching for pictures about pirates.

I used a few of the "froo-froo" options, but I didn't include a song just so you wouldn't be assaulted with some annonying song of my choice every time you came to this web page. However, if you are making a speical photo slideshow for someone, you can add music, text, and way too many special effects. (Try not to overdo it.)

The best part is, this photo slideshow just took me a few minutes to put together.

My "Rock You" Pirate Birthday Slideshow

Borrow This Pirate Birthday Video Ecard

Yes, I've been talking about making your own, unique birthday ecard, but if you want to just borrow this Pirate Birthday video, that's fine, too. (If you put it on a web page, I'd appreciate a link back to this page.) Just go to the Pirate Birthday video page on blip.tv and choose the "Share" button on the right (or click on it for other options).