A small flyer at A5 and A6: what, when, where and a line. Fourteen copies, one per letterbox, printed at home with ⌘P.
THROW A
SPOOKY ONE!
A GIF invite that creeps, an RSVP page, flyers for every letterbox, a poster, stickers for the candy bags and a reel for the night before. One party, one look, all of it from one evening in PopCraft.
The “Have a spooktacular night” card in its Retro sunset theme, open in Animate and zoomed on the 480 by 480 card. Space plays the four-second loop: chunky italic words over an eighties sunset, a scrolling neon grid and blinking stars.
BOO!
THE PARTY
Hollin Close does Halloween
Hollin Close is an example street, made up for this page. It has fourteen houses, one very keen organiser called Dee, and a tradition: on 31 October the whole close turns its lights orange, the kids trick-or-treat door to door, and everybody ends up in Dee's garage with a vat of soup.
Every year the invites are a blurry phone photo of a handwritten note. This year Dee wants it to look like a real event, and she has one evening. She needs an invite for the group chat, a way to know how much soup to make, a flyer for the neighbours who are not in the chat, a poster for the corner shop, something for the candy bags, and a little video to get people excited.
7
Halloween GIF cards, in seven looks
4s
per card, looping forever
A5 · A6
the handbill, for letterboxes
12
stickers on a sheet, one component
CHOOSE YOUR FATE
Pick a look before you pick a font
Halloween is the one night where “too much” is the brief. PopCraft's seasonal templates come in looks, and each look is carried across several pieces, so the invite matches the reel. Here lie the options.
HERE LIES
Retro sunset
Eighties grid, hot drop shadow, blinking stars
- Have a spooktacular night (GIF)
HERE LIES
Pixel
Sprites hop between checkered bars
- Happy Halloween (GIF)
HERE LIES
Pop art
Halftone, ink lines, a pun
- Witch way to the candy? (GIF)
HERE LIES
Neon
Glowing tubes in the dark
- Spooky season (GIF)
HERE LIES
Gothic
A rose window, lit petal by petal
- Gothic landing page
- Gothic email header
- Gothic launch reel
HERE LIES
Noir
Rain, venetian blinds, a stamped exhibit
- Noir landing page
- Noir case reel
- Noir email header
HERE LIES
Cut-paper graveyard
A harvest moon, a headstone, a ghost
- Halloween landing page
- Halloween graveyard reel
- Halloween link preview
HERE LIES
Cute buddy
For the under-sevens
- Trick or treat! (GIF)
6 PM
The invite: a GIF in the group chat
Dee goes retro. Have a spooktacular night is chunky italic type with a hot drop shadow over an eighties sunset, a neon grid scrolling underneath and stars that blink. It is 480 pixels square and loops every four seconds.
She changes the words to “Hollin Close · 31 Oct · 6 pm”, opens Export animation, picks GIF (shared palette, so no flicker; loops forever) and drops it in the chat. Twenty minutes in, she has nine thumbs-ups and a dog emoji. The GIF cards page shows the other six hundred-odd cards.
The “Have a spooktacular night” card in its Retro sunset theme, open in Animate and zoomed on the 480 by 480 card. Space plays the four-second loop: chunky italic words over an eighties sunset, a scrolling neon grid and blinking stars.
6:20 PM
The RSVP: how much soup?
The group chat is great for excitement and hopeless for counting. So the GIF gets a link under it: the Animated invitation with a working RSVP, restyled in orange and black. The form already asks for a name, coming or not, how many, anything they cannot eat, and whether they will bring a dish, which is the whole Halloween admin in five fields. Dee renames “bring a dish” to “bring a carved pumpkin”.
She publishes it, attaches a database in the Publish dialog, and every reply becomes a row she can read under Submissions. The weddings page walks through the same template step by step, for a crowd that is mostly less sticky.
7 PM
The paper: flyers, a poster and stickers
Not everyone on the close is in the chat. Mr Okafor at number 3 has never sent a text he did not regret. So Dee makes paper, with the same colours, using three print templates:
EVENT POSTER
BOO!18×24 inches with a headline block and an accent band. One for the corner shop window, exported as a PDF for the print shop.
STICKER SHEET
STICK!Twelve stickers on an A4 page, all from one component. Change the word on one and all twelve follow. They seal the candy bags.
Before any of it prints, the Preflight tab checks for text near the trim, art that stops short of the bleed and fonts that are not loaded. The print and PDF page explains bleed, crop marks and two-per-sheet printing, so this page does not have to.
7:40 PM
The reel: a graveyard for stories
The night before, Dee posts a reel. The Halloween graveyard reel is an eighteen-second, story-sized film: a harvest moon, drifting clouds, headstones rising out of a cut-paper graveyard and a ghost. The text on the stone is a joke about a spreadsheet, which Dee rewrites as “Here lies: your diet. 31 Oct”.
It plays in Animate as she edits it, and exports as an MP4 at the size stories want. The motion studio page covers the timeline if she wants to make the ghost bob higher.
The Halloween graveyard reel template in Animate, zoomed on its story-sized frame. Space plays it: a moon, drifting clouds, headstones rising out of a cut-paper graveyard and a ghost.
RUN A BUSINESS?
The October offer, for shops and products
Not throwing a party, but selling something this October? The seasonal kit goes further. The Halloween landing page has an offer bar, a hero where a headstone rises in a cut-paper graveyard and a ghost bobs before a harvest moon, a ruled column of “recently departed” and the offer, at desktop, laptop, tablet and phone widths. The Halloween link preview is the 1200 × 630 card that shows when the link is shared, and there is a matching email header (an animated GIF) and an offer post.
Be warned: the words are written for a software product burying a spreadsheet. If you sell cupcakes, the graveyard stays and the copy goes. For the black-and-gold crowd, gothic and noir each have a landing page, an email header and reels of their own. Sales and coupons get their own page at sales and promotions.
The Halloween landing page template in Animate, zoomed on its hero. Space plays the entrance: a headstone rises in a cut-paper graveyard and a ghost bobs before a harvest moon beside the headline.
The Happy Halloween card in its Pixel theme, open in Animate and zoomed on the card. Space plays it: pixel sprites hop along the top and bottom between checkered bars while the words arrive, then the loop starts again.
ONE EVENING
The whole party in seven moves
- 1
Pick a look
Retro, pixel, pop art, neon, gothic, noir or cut paper. Open the GIF card in that look first: it sets the colours for everything else. - 2
Send the invite
Change the words on the card, export a looping GIF, post it in the street’s group chat. - 3
Take the RSVPs
Restyle the RSVP invitation, publish it, attach a database. “Bringing a dish?” becomes “Bringing a pumpkin?”. - 4
Flyer every door
The Handbill is A5 and A6. Print a stack, post one through every letterbox on the street. - 5
Put up the poster
The Event poster is 18×24 inches for the window of the corner shop. Export a PDF for the print shop. - 6
Stick the stickers
Twelve stickers on an A4 sheet, one component. Change it once and all twelve change. Seal the candy bags with them. - 7
Post the reel
The graveyard reel is story-sized. Export an MP4 and post it the night before.
THE OLD WAY
A blurry photo of a handwritten note
| THE OLD WAY | IN POPCRAFT |
|---|---|
| A photo of a note in the group chat | A looping GIF invite in a look you picked |
| Counting replies by scrolling | An RSVP page that saves every reply |
| A flyer from a word processor, a poster from somewhere else | Handbill, poster and stickers in the same colours |
| A video app for the reel | A story-sized reel that exports as an MP4 |
| Next year, starting again | Next year, open the file and change the date |
CLIPS
See it creep
The Love you more card in its Doodle theme, in Animate. The export button in the transport bar opens Export animation; GIF is picked as the format, showing its shared palette, dither and loop forever settings and the summary of the size, frame count and estimated file size.
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.
A launch post with its headline. The headline is double-clicked and its words retyped, then Escape leaves the text layer selected. The Design panel’s Text section shows its text style, font, size and spacing.
The website template in the editor, signed in. The Publish button in the top bar opens the Publish dialog. An address is typed, Publish is clicked, the files upload, and the dialog shows the site's link with Version 1 marked Live. The published site is then opened on its own: the landing page shows, and clicking Pricing in its navigation goes to the pricing page.
BEFORE 31 OCTOBER
Send the invite tonight
Click New file, search for halloween, and pick a card. Change the words, export the GIF. For the rest of the party admin, plan an event goes deeper, and greeting cards has every card for the rest of the year. Boo.
ASKED & ANSWERED
Questions, answered
How many Halloween templates are there?
Seven Halloween GIF cards (buddy, confetti, kinetic type, neon, pixel, pop art and retro sunset), a landing page, a link preview, an email header, an offer post and a graveyard reel. Gothic and noir add a landing page, an email header and reels of their own.
Can my guests RSVP?
Yes, with the animated invitation with a working RSVP. Publish it, attach a database from a Neon account of yours, and every reply is kept.
Is the Halloween landing page for a party?
No, and we would rather say so. It is written for a software product (“Give your spreadsheet a decent burial”). The graveyard, the moon and the ghost are yours to keep; the words are for a business running an October offer. For a party, the RSVP invitation is the better start.
Can I print the flyers at home?
Yes. Press ⌘P (Ctrl+P) and PopCraft renders the pages to a PDF and sends it to your printer. Two per sheet saves paper.
Will the GIF play in a group chat?
The cards are 480 × 480 and four seconds long, made small enough for messaging apps, and the GIF export loops forever by default.
Can I make my own spooky look?
Yes. Every template is ordinary layers. Recolour it, swap the type, or draw your own ghost with the brushes. Nothing is locked.
THE MANUAL, FOR THE DETAILS
KEEP EXPLORING
Goes great with
BOO! YOUR TURN.
Spooky invites, party flyers, a landing page and GIFs that creep. Free to start, in your browser or on your Mac.