DIY Halloween

If you need to save time or just don't want to do custom designs, there are plenty of ready-to-print templates you can download. Some are for specific software programs but most are in PDF or on printable Web pages.

• Grab a ghoulish template for Halloween cards and other printable Halloween crafts. There are even templates to help you carve your Jack-o-Lantern.

• Halloween is for kids too. Help them print their own kid-friendly cards, coloring pages, trick or treat bags, and Halloween party games. Most of these templates are in PDF format or on printable Web pages.

Template Tip: If you find a template you love that is almost-but-not-quite perfect, personalize it. Use graphics software to rearrange or delete elements of the template, change the fonts, or alter the colors. The paper you choose can also affect the appearance of your printed template. Experiment with different colors and textures.

Invite guests into your web for a howling good time at Halloween with these Halloween Invitation ideas.

• Halloween Invitations to Make or Print compiled at About.com School-Age Children.
• Printable Halloween Party Invitations come from About.com Teens.
• Making Party Invitations in Adobe Illustrator features a Halloween theme from Sara Froehlich for About.com Graphics Software.
• Make Halloween Invitations With Rubber Stamps includes templates and project ideas from About.com Rubber Stamping.

Invitation/Card Idea: Turn a map of your neighborhood into a Halloween maze — where the only correct solution leads right to your haunted house.

Sure, you could plop some of these images onto a Web page or get more creative and mix and match some Halloween clip art with cute or creepy fonts to create your own decorations and cards.

• These Halloween clip art images are primarily designed for use on the Web. You can try printing them, but the results may not be great (but it doesn't hurt to try). I drew all these images several years ago.

• Dixie Allen, Guide to About.com Clip Art, has a beautiful collection of Halloween images including pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns, witches, and random bats, ghosts, skeletons, and more.

• Don't overlook the images in these miscellaneous and Halloween dingbat fonts. Type them up in your graphics software then color them in shades of Halloween.

Design Tip: Don't clutter your cards or posters with too many cute graphics. Repeat one good image several times to add impact rather than throwing in every witch, pumpkin, bat, or ghost that you find. When using different images, keep the style similar — woodcut, modern, sketched, etc.

Blood-soaked letters are a staple of Halloween. But there are many other fonts that you can use to scare up some party guests or scare off the trick-or-treaters.

• Dripping Blood Fonts may look slightly melted or as if they've been dipped in a pool of blood. But remember, fonts are not in color. You'll have to add the blood red yourself.

• Flaming Fonts can put some sizzle in your holidays too.

• Harry Potter Fonts weave a magical spell any time of year but are especially popular for Halloween.

• Free is fun but sometimes you want something a little better drawn or that contains a more complete character set. These commercial Halloween fonts and font packages lend a touch of class (or creepiness) to your projects.

Design Tip: Many of the Halloween fonts that are so fun to use are also difficult to read. Choose and use these decorative fonts carefully. Use them at large sizes for short headlines and easy to recognize words (Boo! Happy Halloween). Choose a nice, easy to read serif or sans serif font for body copy — and especially for important information like dates, times, and locations for your Halloween festivities.

Orange and black are traditional Halloween colors but you can use any colors you want.

• Bright orange with black screams Halloween while a softer pumpkin color says Fall and Thanksgiving. Even without costumes and candy you can enliven your Halloween party with orange, a color that "is mentally stimulating as well as sociable. Use it to get people thinking or to get them talking." Or, try a bright but sophisticated red-orange mix such as vermilion.

• Want the perfect red for your dripping blood fonts? Color your fonts and vampire fangs in one of these shades of blood red.

• Don't overlook a good zombie green. Consider a sickly shade of chartreuse with a varying mix of yellow and green.

Invitation/Card Idea: Don't fret over finding the right clip art. Use pre-designed holiday papers. Want to make your party a bit more dignified than the usual Halloween bash? Use color paper in warm fall colors and pick a not too outrageous typeface. Put your time and effort into writing a nice invite and having a fun party.