Papel Picado Template — Complete Guide

Papel Picado is a festive invitation for a Día de los Muertos gathering, a Halloween night or a costume party. Rows of cut-paper banners — real papel picado, scalloped and punched with flowers, hearts and stars — sway across the top of a deep night sky in the colour you pick. Below them, your cover photo hangs like a frame on an ofrenda, wreathed in marigolds, with candles and smiling sugar skulls at its foot.

Switch the mood to Halloween and the same page turns spooky in a friendly way: banners cut with bats, moons and spider webs in orange, purple and bone, a moon and bats over the photo, and jack-o'-lanterns beside the candles.

Papel Picado is one of Fotify's simpler designs: its look comes from one colour you choose — any colour at all — and a choice of mood.

This guide covers how Papel Picado looks, the options unique to it, how to apply it to your event, and how it lays out each section of your invitation.

Papel Picado is available on every plan, Free included.

For an overview of the template gallery and the picker, see How to Customize Your RSVP Invitation.

What makes Papel Picado different

Standard templates change colours and fonts over the same shared layout. Papel Picado replaces the layout itself: its own cover and closing, its own section heads, and its own treatment of the message, countdown, gallery, story, programme and RSVP card.

Signature design elements

• Cut-paper banners — rows of tissue-paper flags strung on cords, each one cut with a scalloped edge and a punched pattern, swaying gently from its fold
• A night in your colour — pick the colour of the night behind the paper: midnight violet, near black, night blue or any colour you like. Papel Picado takes it down to a deep shade of itself so the paper always glows on it
• An ofrenda frame — your cover photo in an arched niche lit by candlelight, wreathed in marigolds (cempasúchil), with candles and sugar skulls standing at its foot
• Two moods — Día de los Muertos (pink, orange, violet, green and turquoise paper, marigolds and calaveras) or Halloween (orange, purple and bone paper, bats, moons, spider webs and jack-o'-lanterns)
• Poster lettering — the name and titles in Sancreek, an ornamental face with cut serifs like lettering on a fiesta poster, and the friendly Nunito for everything you read
• Respectful and festive — smiling, flower-decorated calaveras and cheerful jack-o'-lanterns, never anything gory. The sugar skulls can be turned off
• Always readable — whatever colour you pick, even a pale yellow or a bright red, the night is deepened and every label, number and button is checked to read clearly on it

When to choose Papel Picado

Papel Picado suits celebrations that happen after dark:

• Día de los Muertos gatherings — an evening around the ofrenda with family and friends, with a story section laid out as a shelf of photo frames for the people you remember
• Halloween parties — switch the mood to Halloween for bats, moons, spider webs and jack-o'-lanterns
• Costume parties and themed birthdays — a birthday that falls in late October, a masquerade or any party with a dress-up theme

Guests can scan the event QR code and add their photos of the costumes, the altar and the night to the shared gallery. See how Fotify works for parties and birthdays.

For a gathering to remember someone quietly, try Keepsake. For a bright, sticker-style party, try Confetti.

Applying Papel Picado to your event

1. Open your event, click Invitation in the sidebar, then the Invitation tab
2. In Design Template, click Change template if the gallery is collapsed, and find Papel Picado under Designs (it is listed under the Party filter, and under Birthday too)
3. Optional: press Try it on to see Papel Picado with your own invitation details in the live preview — nothing is saved until you press Use this design
4. Or click the Papel Picado card to apply it straight away
5. Open Papel Picado options below the gallery to pick your mood, your colour and the other options described below. Changes save automatically

Papel Picado works on every plan. On free events a small "Made with Fotify" badge appears in the bottom corner of the invitation; any paid plan or an active subscription removes it.

Switching to another template later is non-destructive: your event content stays exactly as you entered it, and your Papel Picado options are kept in case you switch back.

Papel Picado options

Papel Picado has five options of its own. They take the place of the standard colour and font controls, which Papel Picado doesn't use.

1. Mood

• Día de los Muertos (default) — papel picado in rosa mexicano, marigold orange, violet, green and turquoise, cut with flowers, hearts, stars, diamonds and calaveras; marigolds around the cover photo, and a marigold or sugar skulls on the altar
• Halloween — banners in pumpkin orange, purple and bone, cut with bats, crescent moons, spider webs and jack-o'-lantern faces; a full moon, a spider web and bats around the cover photo, and jack-o'-lanterns on the altar

2. Night colour

The deep night behind the banners, the whole page long. Pick it two ways:

• A suggested swatch — Midnight violet (default), Near black, Night blue, Deep plum, Night green or Burnt earth
• Pick any color — the last chip opens your device's colour picker, so you can match your decorations or your theme. The colour's code is shown beside the chips

Any colour works. A colour that is already deep is used exactly as you picked it; a lighter one is taken down to a deep shade of the same hue (a pale yellow becomes a deep olive night), so the paper, the marigolds and every label keep glowing on it.

3. Sugar skulls

On by default. Smiling calaveras stand beside the cover photo and on the closing altar, and some of the paper flags are cut with a calavera. Turn it off to keep only flowers, candles and paper (and, in the Halloween mood, the jack-o'-lanterns, bats and moons).

4. Cover line

The small line above the name on the cover (up to 60 characters). Leave it blank to use the default ("You're invited"). Try "Join us to remember and celebrate", "Noche de ofrenda" or "A night of costumes".

5. Closing line

The line at the end of the page (up to 80 characters). Leave it blank to use the default ("See you by candlelight").

Every piece of text Papel Picado prints on the invitation — the cover line, the reply buttons, the section labels and titles, the countdown units, the closing line — can also be rewritten directly on the page: switch the live preview into edit mode and double-click the text. Section titles you have already set in their own settings (story, countdown, gifts, where to stay, getting there, FAQs) are edited in place the same way.

How each section is treated

Cover

A centred cover replaces the standard header:

• Two rows of papel picado strung across the top of the page, swaying on their cords
• Your cover photo in an arched niche with a band of tissue colour and a fine marigold edge, in a warm candle glow, keeping the horizontal crop you set. In the Día de los Muertos mood a wreath of marigolds runs around the arch; in the Halloween mood a full moon with a bat flying across it, a spider web strung over the corner of the arch and more bats keep it company. Without a cover photo the niche shows a large marigold (or a moon) in the candlelight, so the cover never looks empty
• The altar at the foot of the frame — candles of two heights with sugar skulls on each side (a marigold when skulls are off), or jack-o'-lanterns in the Halloween mood
• Cover line (option 4) in marigold capitals
• Your event name in poster lettering with a tissue-pink edge. Long names step down a size so they never break mid-word
• The date, the time and the place — the time follows the Show time setting of your invitation's cover, and every guest sees the date you picked, whatever their time zone
• Kindly reply — a button that scrolls to the RSVP form. It only appears when your RSVP section is visible, and never on a save-the-date page

Section heads

Each section opens centred: a small garland of five paper flags on a cord, the section's label in marigold capitals, then its title in poster lettering and, for the story and gifts, your subtitle or gift message.

Message — a letter by candlelight

Your message sits on a night card with a string of paper flags hung along its top edge and a marigold (or a jack-o'-lantern) resting in its bottom corner. A long letter steps down a size and aligns to the start of the line, which is easier to read over many lines.

Countdown — punched paper tiles

One paper tile per unit, hung from a cord between two candles: each tile is cut with a border of diamonds and scalloped dots around a solid centre where the number sits, in the mood's paper colours one after another. The unit names hang underneath in marigold capitals. It counts down to your event's date and time in the venue's time zone, and shows your completed message once the moment arrives.

Gallery (Carousel) — a wall of niches

Every photo is arch-topped like the cover's frame and matted in a tissue colour, the colours taking turns from photo to photo — two columns on a phone and three on wider screens (two for two or four photos, and a single centred niche for one). A short last row is centred under the full rows above it. Every photo is framed the same way.

Story — an ofrenda shelf of memories

Titled "Our story" unless you set your own story title (rename it in the story settings or double-click it in the preview). Your milestones stand on a shelf like the photos on an ofrenda: each one is an arched frame with a candle beside it, standing on a shelf trimmed with a scalloped paper fringe, with its date in marigold capitals, its title and its text under the shelf. A milestone without a photo keeps the same frame with a marigold (or a jack-o'-lantern) inside it. One frame per shelf on a phone, two from tablet size; an odd one out gets a shelf of its own, centred. Every milestone is laid out the same way, and Papel Picado never works out an age or a year from your dates.

Itinerary — the night's programme on a cord

The schedule on one night card: a dotted cord runs down the start side, and every entry hangs from it on a small paper tag holding its time (the tag colours take turns), followed by the moment in poster lettering, the place and any note. Each day is headed by its date (or its label, when you gave it one). The moments are exactly the entries you write — the altar, the procession, the costume contest — in your own words. Entry icons are not shown: the paper tag is the marker.

RSVP — the reply card on the altar

"Will you join us?" with your RSVP deadline under it, and the reply form on a night card with a string of paper flags across its top, a fine marigold rule inside its edge and a candle at each bottom corner: the attend / decline choices as two selectable boxes and a rounded send button. On a registration link the card holds the registration form; on a save-the-date page it holds the save-the-date note instead of the form.

Location, Gifts, Event Details and Save the Date

These four sections share their structure with Fotify's other picker-coloured designs (Meridian, Thread, Prism and Duotone), dressed in Papel Picado's colours: night cards with a fine marigold edge, rounded buttons in the mood's colour (rosa mexicano, or pumpkin orange for Halloween), and titles in poster lettering.

• Location — a map card beside an address card with your address, your directions and an Open in Maps button. When a map can't be shown, the map card draws a pin with the venue's coordinates; without coordinates the address card spans the row
• Gifts — every registry, payment option, charity and wishlist item is its own card in a grid, grouped under small labels (with a count) when you offer more than one kind. Payment details sit in an inset box with a Copy button, and long account numbers wrap inside the card. Pay links, scan-to-pay QR codes and wishlist reservations appear as buttons on each card
• Event Details — a card per topic: dress code with your suggested and avoided colours as swatches (a good place for your costume theme), where to stay with each hotel as a mini-card (distance, price range, promo code, notes and a Book button), getting there with an icon for each kind of transport, and a full-width FAQ card where each question opens on tap
• Save the Date (Calendar) — one card with the title and the event date on one side, and Google, Apple (downloads the calendar file) and Outlook buttons on the other

Closing

A small altar of candles with sugar skulls (or jack-o'-lanterns) and a marigold in the middle, your closing line (option 5) in poster lettering, the date and place, the same Kindly reply button as on the cover, and a last string of papel picado.

Sections that use the shared layout

These sections keep Fotify's shared layout and are dressed in Papel Picado's style:

• Photo upload, QR code, Table assignment, Playlist, Sub-events, Special treatments and custom sections

Each sits in the same column as the rest of the page on a night card with a fine marigold edge, with titles in poster lettering and rounded buttons in the mood's colour. Photos in custom sections are capped in height so a tall portrait never takes over the page.

Papel Picado has no section of its own for a costume contest or the names of the people you remember. To add one, use a custom section and place it wherever you like among the other sections.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is Papel Picado only for Día de los Muertos? A: No. Switch the Mood option to Halloween for a Halloween or costume party, or keep the Día de los Muertos mood for any colourful party at night.

Q: Can I hide the sugar skulls? A: Yes. Turn off Sugar skulls: the calaveras beside the cover photo, on the closing and on the paper flags are replaced by flowers and candles.

Q: Is the Halloween mood scary? A: No. It is spooky in a friendly way — smiling jack-o'-lanterns, bats, moons and spider webs cut in paper — with nothing gory.

Q: Can I show the photos of the people we remember? A: Yes. Add them as milestones of your story: each one stands in its own frame on the ofrenda shelf, with the name, dates and words you write. Papel Picado never adds an age or a year you didn't type.

Q: Can I write the invitation in Spanish? A: Yes. Your own texts (the event name, the message, the programme, the story) appear exactly as you write them, and every line Papel Picado adds can be changed with the Cover line and Closing line options or by double-clicking it in the live preview.

Q: I picked a light colour. Why is the page darker than my colour? A: Papel Picado always sets the paper on a night sky, so a light colour is taken down to a deep shade of the same hue. That keeps the paper bright and every label readable. A colour that is already deep is used exactly as you picked it.

Q: I don't have a cover photo. Will the cover look empty? A: No. Without a photo, the arched niche shows a large marigold (or a moon, in the Halloween mood) in the candlelight, still wreathed and with the altar at its foot.

Q: Does Papel Picado work in right-to-left languages? A: Yes. In Hebrew and Arabic the layout mirrors: the programme's cord runs down the right side and the letter's marigold moves to the other corner. The cover photo's crop stays as you set it.

Q: Does the page move? A: Gently: the paper flags sway on their cords, the candle flames flicker and the cover fades in. Guests whose device asks for reduced motion see a still page.

Next steps

• See How to Customize Your RSVP Invitation for the template gallery and how to try a design on before applying it
• Compare other party designs: Confetti for a sticker party, or Lineup for a festival-style poster
• Let guests share their photos of the night with a QR code: read about Fotify for parties and digital invitations with RSVP

Need help? Get in touch through the in-dashboard help widget.