Pomp and Circumstance--Celebrating Graduation Day

Good afternoon and Happy Tuesday! After enjoying the first 80-degree day on Saturday since mid-September, the weather has been a bit of a letdown. That's April for you. 

On Sunday, we had the pleasure of seeing the movie "Very Semi-Serious," which took us behind the scenes of the New Yorker cartoon. There were lots of laughs and an great mix of people who have been featured in the magazine for almost 90 years. There was a Q&A afterward, which was moderated by Calvin Trillin.

For colleges, high schools, middle schools, elementary schools, and preschools everywhere, graduation is just around the corner. Today, we'll show you how to celebrate your child's achievements (featuring ideas we found online) and show you some games from our shop. 

Before we get into our discussion, I have to feature this DIY graduation hat because it's funny and sadly, it reflects the inevitability of paying off those college loans. Photo courtesy of Celebrations.

First up, here's an idea called "Bright Future," courtesy of the folks at Frog Prince Paperie. Along with their free party printables, they used light bulbs to help decorate the table.

Celebrate your child's graduation with a table of tasty finger foods, cafeteria style! This table includes tater tots, cookies, sandwiches, labeled water bottles, and more. Decorations courtesy of Party City.

A popular graduation party theme is "Keys to Success." From Celebrations at Home, this decor is inspired by the store Anthropologie, and is ideal for the college graduate who is ready to enter the "real world." A "Keys to Success" table is set up where party guests can write notes to the graduate. Tutorial is available at the website.

From Maddycake Muse, here is a great idea for a med or nursing school graduation party. The decor features skeletons, x-rays, pill bottles with candy, and bandage containers with popcorn. Check out the "Red Cross Oreos" in front!

Finally, for preschool graduation parties, look to the alphabet for inspiration using building blocks and chalkboard. Again, this idea is courtesy of Celebrations.

It's now time to show you some of the graduation games we're featuring in our shop. First up, we have a game called "20 Questions," which features (you guessed it) twenty questions about the graduate. In the sample below, I used my high school colors of maroon and gray, along with a pirate mascot.

Second, for kids and adults alike, we offer a game called "How Many Words Can You Make From the Word GRADUATION?" We can include a picture of the graduate with all our games. All you need to do is send us a high-resolution JPEG file.

Next up, we have two games in one featuring celebrities In the first game, party guests will match each celebrities with the high school from which they graduated. The second game features a list of 20 famous people who were at the top (or near the top) of their class. Party guests will determine whether they were valedictorian or salutatorian. 

Fourth, we are offering another "two games in one" deal, which features a word search and college word scramble. In the sample below, I've featured a bulldog mascot.

Finally, our latest offering is a variation of our "Quote/Unquote" game. This one features pearls of wisdom about high school from 20 iconic movies.

For more information on ordering, please consult the "Graduation Games" section of the shop.

After a slow March, business has started to pick up a bit. Below is one of three movie-themed games I created for a customer last week.

We've also started to create our second BINGO game, and we may upload a new graduation game or two. Stay tuned for shop updates!

Have a PRINTASTIC Day!

Kathy

The Story of Printastic Party Games

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a pleasant holiday. I'd like to take the time to introduce myself and tell you how I started Printastic Party Games.

I had always wanted to start my own business, and I wavered back and forth for years to figure out what kind of business I would start. I narrowed it down to either an editorial services business or a greeting card company. I came to the conclusion that the latter would be more creative and enjoyable. Initially, I wanted to sell origami cards. I was creating cards for family and friends and got great feedback. However, I realized origami was very time-consuming and costly with all the supplies I would need. I also thought about creating custom crossword puzzles for special occasions since I was a huge fan of word and trivia games. Once again, I was concerned about undertaking this venture with a limited budget.

At the beginning of 2014, I decided to start a printable party games business that would cover all special occasions and holidays. The customer could download PDF files and print as many copies as he/she wished. This also enabled me to save on printing and shipping costs.. My games would be customized with anything the customer wished, such as background color, font, and wording to fit the theme of the party. I figured customers could also use the games as greeting cards, gifts, and save-the-date reminders. Game choices would include crossword puzzles, word searches, word scramblers, matching games, trivia games, and much more. My approach would be to get the customer what he/she wants as quickly as possible. I decided to open an Etsy shop because the costs would be minimal as opposed to a traditional website. I spent several months doing research and creating games.

Our shop finally opened in September 2014 without much fanfare. Because my background is in editorial services, not marketing, I didn't really have a game plan for drawing traffic to our site. We had no sales our first month in business, but I figured it takes time for people to discover an Etsy shop. Beginning with Halloween, I started getting several views a day and had some success. I sold several holiday-themed games, along with a couple of custom crossword puzzles. I was also pleasantly surprised to get a few orders for corporate events. In addition, I joined several Etsy teams and attended a NYC Meetup for Etsy sellers. The latter was very helpful because the featured speaker gave some great advice.

In 2015, we plan to introduce Bingo and scavenger hunts to our Etsy shop. We are listed as vendors on the site Punchbowl and we hope to cross-promote with other party vendors and event planners. In addition to promoting shop updates on this blog, we hope to provide you with party-planning and gift ideas. I would also like feedback regarding what you would like to see in our shop.

Within the next week, we will be updating our shop with an expanded wedding/bridal games section. Stay tuned!

Have a PRINTASTIC day!

Kathy