Collect real replies into a database you own, show a thank-you after each one, and run at your own address. It looks like the invitation, because it is the same design. Change your mind? Publish again; the old version is kept.
BIRTHDAYS &
PARTIES!
Maya turns seven in three weeks and her mum, Jess, has a job, two other kids and no free evenings. Here is how the invite, the RSVP, the banner, the party bags and the thank-yous got made anyway.
The Party time! kid's birthday card in its Balloons theme, open in Animate and zoomed on the 480 by 480 card. Space plays its four-second loop: balloons float up around the words.
SURPRISE!
THE EXAMPLE PARTY
Seven candles, twenty kids, one tired parent
Jess and Maya are an example, not customers. But the party is the real thing: a Saturday afternoon in a church hall, twenty kids, a bouncy castle that may or may not show up, and a group of parents who will reply to a paper invite by telling Jess at the school gate (if at all).
Jess wants three things. An invitation that looks nicer than the supermarket ones. A way to know who is actually coming, and who cannot eat nuts. And a party that does not take more evenings to plan than it does hours to run. This page follows her from the blank file to the last thank-you, using real PopCraft templates. Each step links to the feature page that goes deeper.
110
birthday GIF cards
5
RSVP questions, one form
5×7
inch printed invitation
3
sizes of birthday film
THE PLAN
Three weeks, counted down
Every balloon is a job, every job is a template. Click the name under one for the feature behind it.
- −21Invites go outInvitation · 5×7
- −21The RSVP siteAnimated invitation with a working RSVP
- −10Who brings whatPotluck, a shared party board
- −7Banner and stickersLarge-format poster · Sticker sheet
- −3Name tags for everyoneCertificate + Bulk create
- TODAYThe big dayKid birthday GIF cards
- +2The film and the thank-yousBirthday montage · Thank you cards
DAY −21
The invitation, on paper
The grandparents want paper. So does the fridge. Jess opens Invitation, a 5×7 card with a centred stack: the names, a line, the details as tidy rows, the RSVP. Every line is a field, so she types "Maya is 7!" once and it lands where it should. There is a smaller Invitation (A7) on the European card size too.
⌘P prints it. PopCraft turns the pages into a PDF first, so the printer gets the artwork and not the app. She ticks Crop marks, prints four on card stock, and trims them with the kitchen guillotine that has been in a drawer since 2019. If the colour runs to the edge, stretch it past the trim to the bleed line, or the cut leaves a white sliver.
The 5 by 7 invitation template in Design. Command-P opens Print, which shows the invitation as it will come out of the printer; Crop marks is ticked so a print shop, or you with a trimmer, can cut it to size.
DAY −21
The invitation, online, with an RSVP that works
For the parents who live in their phones, the same invitation goes online. Animated invitation with a working RSVP is a page where the card drops in, the date and place rise line by line, and a string of lights pops along the top. Under it, the form: your name, coming?, how many of you, anything you cannot eat, and a tick box for I will bring a dish.
The template ships as a housewarming ("We finally have a kitchen"). Jess changes the words to Maya's party, then clicks Publish and types an address like maya-is-seven. Under Database she clicks New Neon database. Now every reply is saved, and Submissions lists them: who, how many, and the one kid who cannot have nuts.
The page works on a phone, a tablet and a laptop, motion and all. The web preview shows it at a phone's width before anyone else sees it.
The Animated invitation with a working RSVP template on the canvas. From the ⋯ menu, Web preview docks the page beside the canvas as a real website: the card drops in, the lights pop and the RSVP form rises. The width picker narrows it to a phone's, where the page reflows.
HONEST BIT
What the RSVP site does, and what it does not
IT DOES NOT
NOPE!Email the guests for you, send reminders, or take payment for anything. Anyone with the link can open it, so it is no place for a home address you would not write on a paper invite.
DAY −10
Who is bringing the crisps?
Some parties are bring-a-dish. For those, there is Potluck, a shared sign-up board that is a small app once published. Each guest makes an account and adds what they are bringing, by course: mains, sides, salads, sweets and drinks. Everyone sees the same list, with who is bringing what, and only the cook can change or take back their own dish.
The board counts each course, so the host sees at a glance that nobody is bringing pudding. For a seven-year-old's party it is overkill (the answer is always crisps). For a family reunion or a graduation barbecue, it saves forty messages.
DAY −7
A banner, and stickers for the party bags
A party needs a sign on the hall door. The Large-format poster template comes in A2, A1 and A0, and there is a 24×36 inch poster too. Type HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAYA in letters you can read from the car park, export a PDF, and a print shop does the rest. (PopCraft does not split a banner across sheets of A4. Your home printer will thank you for not asking.)
The Sticker sheet is an A4 page of stickers. Put Maya's face on them, print on sticker paper, and the party bags look like a professional did them. Then there is the ten-minute trick: the Certificate template plus Bulk create. Make a list of the guests in a spreadsheet, save it as CSV, and Bulk create makes one page per name. Twenty "Official Party Animal" certificates, one click.
An event poster. Command-P opens Print: what to print (every page), how the pages sit on the paper (single pages), and Full bleed, already on for a print page. Crop marks is turned on; the dialog says what each sheet will be.
The bold business card template. The Preflight tab opens in the right panel and Run checks both sides: image resolution, safe margins, bleed, hairlines, overflowing text, fonts and transparency, each issue listed with where it is.
DAY 0
Cards for the people who could not come
Auntie Rosa is in Lisbon. Grandad is in hospital with his hip. They get a GIF card, which is a birthday card that moves: a four-second loop at 480×480 that drops into WhatsApp, iMessage or a text like any other GIF.
There are 110 birthday cards: every decade from 1 to 100, milestones like sweet sixteen and twenty-one, cards for mum, dad, grandma, grandpa, a sister, twins, a coworker, the boss and the pet, half birthdays and belated ones, and four just for kids. Maya's is Party time! in the Balloons theme. Change the words, export the GIF from the transport bar, send.
The Party time! kid's birthday card in its Balloons theme, open in Animate and zoomed on the 480 by 480 card. Space plays its four-second loop: balloons float up around the words.
The Happy Birthday card in its Confetti theme, open in Animate and zoomed on the 480 by 480 card. Space plays the four-second loop: the cake bobs above the words while confetti falls and turns around them, and the loop runs on into its second pass without a jump.
DAY +2
The birthday film, and the thank-yous
The phone is full of blurry cake photos. Birthday montage turns them into a half-minute film: a title card with the name, cake, candles and friends, cut on the beats of an upbeat keys track made by PopCraft and released CC0. It comes in three sizes, landscape for the TV, 9:16 for a story and square for a post.
Drop the photos on the frames, retype the captions (the template says "One breath, thirty candles"; Maya had seven), and export an MP4 with the music. Then the Thank you GIF cards, in confetti, doodle, elegant and more, go to everyone who came. Jess is in bed by ten.
A logo reveal in Animate. The download button in the transport bar opens Export animation. MP4 shows frame rate, range, resolution and quality with a summary of the size; GIF switches to palette, dither and loop settings; Lottie lists what the file can carry. The frame rate is set to 120 fps for MP4.
NOT A BIRTHDAY?
Baby showers and graduations, too
BABY SHOWER
AWW!Baby shower cards in balloons, confetti and watercolour, plus "It's a boy!", "It's a girl!" and welcome-little-one cards for after. The RSVP page and the invitation fit a shower without changing a pixel.
GRADUATION
TASSEL!Graduation cards for high school and college, from "The tassel was worth the hassle" to a retro "Class of 2027". The Certificate and Bulk create make a page for every graduate.
BABY'S FIRST YEAR
ONE!The Baby's first year slideshow is the montage for the first birthday: drop in twelve months of photos and it is cut to music already.
The Class of 2027 graduation card in its Retro sunset theme, open in Animate and zoomed on the card. Space plays its four-second loop.
The new file gallery, searched for “slideshow”: the photo slideshows are listed (wedding, travel, birthday, baby’s first year and more). Baby’s first year slideshow is picked and opened, and Space plays its first scene with the music.
THE OLD WAY
A party is a lot of little jobs
| THE OLD WAY | IN POPCRAFT |
|---|---|
| Supermarket invitations with a blank line for the name | A 5×7 invitation with your words, printed at home with crop marks |
| Replies at the school gate, half forgotten | An RSVP page that saves every reply, with dietary notes |
| A group chat thread about who brings what | Potluck: one shared list, counted by course |
| A banner with someone else's kid's name on it | A poster from A2 to A0, or 24×36, with yours |
| Writing twenty name tags by hand | Bulk create: one page per row of a CSV |
| Sending the same GIF everyone sends | 110 birthday GIF cards, with your words on them |
FROM ZERO
Your party in six moves
- 1
Pick the invite
Open Invitation (5×7) or the smaller Invitation (A7). Every line is a field: names, the line, the RSVP. Print it, or export a PDF. Print and PDF. - 2
Put the RSVP online
Open Animated invitation with a working RSVP, change the words, click Publish. Attach a database and every reply is saved. Publish a website. - 3
Sort the food
For a bring-a-dish party, publish Potluck: everyone signs up, adds their dish and sees the whole list by course. - 4
Print the decorations
A banner from the Large-format poster (A2 to A0) or the 24×36 poster, and the Sticker sheet for party bags. - 5
Send the GIFs
For everyone who could not come, a birthday card that moves. There are over a hundred. GIF cards. - 6
Make the film
Drop the party photos on Birthday montage, already cut to a song, and export it in landscape, story or square. Motion studio.
START THE PARTY
Open the invitation
In PopCraft, click New file, search for RSVP, and change the first line to your party. Planning something bigger? Plan an Event covers signage and slides, Weddings the big one, and Greeting Cards every other card.
ASKED & ANSWERED
Questions, answered
Does the RSVP really work?
Yes. The form on the Animated invitation template sends who is coming, how many, whether they are coming, what they cannot eat and whether they will bring a dish, then shows a thank-you. Publish the page and attach a database in the Publish dialog, and every reply is saved; Submissions beside the database lists them. Without a database the form still thanks your guests, but nothing is kept.
Where are the replies kept?
In a database in your own Neon account (or Supabase), not in ours. PopCraft writes one table there, one row per reply, and reads it back when you open Submissions.
Can anyone see the party address?
Anyone who has the site's link can open a published site, so treat it like the paper invitation: share it with the guests. If the address must stay private, leave it off the page and put it in a message to the people who said yes.
Can I print at home?
Yes. Press ⌘P and PopCraft renders the pages to a PDF and sends it to your printer, with crop marks if you want to trim. For a banner, export a PDF and take it to a print shop: a home printer will not do A0.
Is there a card for every age?
Lots of them. There are cards for every decade from 1 to 100, sweet sixteen, eighteen and twenty-one, for mums, dads, grandparents, siblings, twins, partners, bosses, coworkers and pets, half birthdays and belated ones, in themes from balloons to neon. Change the words if yours is not there.
What about baby showers and graduations?
The same tools. There are baby shower and new baby cards (it's a boy, it's a girl, welcome little one), graduation cards for high school and college, a Baby's first year slideshow, and the invitation, RSVP site and certificate work for any party.
THE MANUAL, FOR THE DETAILS
KEEP EXPLORING
Goes great with
SURPRISE! YOUR TURN.
Invites, RSVP sites, baby showers and graduations, all in one place. Free to start, in your browser or on your Mac.