Anyone who has followed us since the beginning (est. 2018) is probably aware that Halloween is one of my favorite holidays of the year. I won’t call it THE favorite because that would be silly since I pretty much love every holiday, but Halloween offers a totally different world of creative opportunity that never fails to inspire. We’ve done a few things in the past to honor Halloween here at TOG.ink. A couple of years ago, a designer on our team helped me create One Kooky Halloween Birth Announcement for my little boy, and last year we showcased custom print Halloween cards by Mary Hawkins in our Hot Trends Off the Press series.
But there’s this one party I’ve been itching to do again (you can read more about it in A Birthday Party to Remember) and Halloween seemed like the perfect reason, So I turned the 100 Acre Wood trail for my daughter’s birthday into a Trick or Treat trail! In mid-September, I got to work planning a family-friendly (because that’s how we roll these days) Halloween Party with all the Winnie the Pooh characters dressed in costumes and holding bowls of treats. And just as exciting as the party itself are the custom print goodies we created!
It all started with custom print invitations!
I knew I wanted to use the same party invitation design as before but with a spooky evening feel. My friend who designed the original invitation gave it a blue and violet hazy woods look with shadows of bats in the sky and a friendly jack ‘o lantern below. At first it was all full-color digital but I wanted it to glow a bit so we added enhanced foil to the front and back. We chose the A7 Flat Card, Digital + 2-Sided Enhanced Foil but you can shop Flat Cards to see all the flat card sizes and print processes we offer. (As a side note, I did print the invitation on shimmer stock just to see, and it looked really nice. The shimmer gave a really lovely glow to the whole design and it’s only 8 cents more per invitation.)
Back to the foil…the great thing about enhanced foil is that you get the beauty and shine of foil on BOTH sides of the invitation for the price of a 1-sided foil stamped invitation. Plus, enhanced foil is raised so you get the added bonus of texture. We chose metallic silver for the waning crescent moon and sprinkled silver glittering stars in the evening sky. The enhanced foil stars followed through to the map on the back for a magical effect. You can learn more about this printing process in Introducing Enhanced Raised Foil. We finished the invitation with a coordinating green envelope and some spooky Halloween stamps. Who wouldn’t be excited to open that piece of mail?!
Treat bags for the trick-or-treat trail.
The trail included a home for each cartoon character, and each character was dressed in a costume with a bowl of treats for the kiddos. Of course, the kids needed something to hold the candy they were gathering throughout the trail. We created some super cute custom treat bags using the jack ‘o lantern artwork from the party invitation. We chose the very affordable White Treat Bag with Digital Print. You’ll also find treat bags with foil printing and digital + foil printing if you’re looking for a fun print pairing.
Custom napkins were an impressive touch!
I always get compliments when I set out custom napkins at any celebration. People love it! We chose White Beverage Uncoined Napkins because it offers the most room for artwork and they’re a cheap way to personalize any celebration. My friend grabbed the invitation artwork, which was a super easy way to bring a custom touch to the food and dessert tables. Foil stamped napkins are also available and they come in several napkin colors with a variety of foil colors to choose from. Noted for my next party!
Art prints make great decorations!
What I love most about Winnie the Pooh is the writing. Charming quotations are endless and I took full advantage of that for the first party. For the Halloween party, I decided to stick with one quotation from the movie we were showing. We placed it on the same background artwork as the invitation and had it printed on 8 x 10 Art Prints with 1-Sided Enhanced Foil. There are two sizes of art prints and you can choose from digital or digital + enhanced foil. There is even a variable print option. I have to say the art prints look beautiful framed, and I will keep one forever in my personal Halloween decorations!
I hope you enjoyed a little custom print inspiration to get you in the mood for Halloween! Is your tummy rumbling for a smackeral of candy? Be sure to treat yourself to something sweet, or perhaps a sweet find when you shop TOG.ink.
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