Personalised Halloween Prints: Two Designs Made in Hessle

Most Halloween decorations have a short life. Up in October, in a box in the loft or in the bin by the middle of November. A personalised print behaves differently. It comes back out every year, goes back on the same nail, and because it has your family on it, it means a bit more each time somebody new gets added.

We make two Halloween designs in our studio in Hessle. Both are personalised, both are made to order, and both are our own drawings rather than something bought in and reprinted. Here is what each one does, what they cost, and how to think about ordering before the 31st.

1. The ghost family print, one ghost each

The Halloween Ghost Family Print is a line-up of ghosts with your family name across the top. There are 15 ghost designs to choose from, so everybody in the house gets their own rather than sharing a generic one.

Ordering it is simple. You give us a title (the listing's own example is "The Thompson Family") and then the names with the ghost each person has picked, written out like "Dad - Man 1, Eve - Teen 2". That is the whole personalisation. Kids tend to spend a happy ten minutes arguing over which ghost is theirs, which is half the point.

It works because it is really a family print wearing a Halloween costume, so it reads as a keepsake rather than something disposable. If the family-name idea appeals more than the ghosts do, our family prints range does the same job all year round, and there is more on that in our guide to family name prints for the hallway.

2. Your own house, gone haunted

The Personalised Haunted House Halloween Print is the stranger of the two, and the one people usually buy for somebody else. We take your actual house and draw a haunted version of it, keeping the features you would recognise (the shape of the roof, the bay window, the front door) and putting the eerie details around them.

You choose the title. The listing suggests something along the lines of "The Haunted Manor of" plus your family name, though a joke works just as well.

One practical note. There is no photo upload box on the product page at the moment, so email a clear picture of the front of the house to info@duffyscreations.co.uk when you place your order. A daylight photo taken straight on from the pavement is much easier to draw from than a dusk one at an angle.

3. Sizes, frames and what they cost

Both prints start at £10 for an A5 print on its own, which is the one to pick if you already have a frame you like. From there the two ladders differ slightly, so here they are in full.

Halloween Ghost Family Print

• A5: £10 print only, £15 framed in black, white or grey

• A4: £14 print only, £19 framed in black or white, £20 in grey

• A3: £17 print only, £28 framed in black or white, £29 in grey

• A mount adds £2 on the A4 and A3 sizes

Personalised Haunted House Halloween Print

• A5: £10 print only, £14 framed in black or white, £15 in grey

• A4: £13 print only, £18 framed in black or white, £19 in grey

• A3: £15 print only, £27 framed in black or white, £28 in grey

• A mount adds £2 on the A4 and A3 sizes

As a gift, A4 framed is the size most people land on. A5 sits on a shelf with the tea lights, A3 takes over a wall.

4. The frames, and one thing worth knowing

Our frames are solid wood, made in the UK, in black, white or grey. That is the full list. Grey suits the ghost print best, for what it is worth, because it keeps the whole thing soft rather than stark.

The front is 1.2mm acrylic rather than glass, and that matters more at Halloween than at any other time of year. A seasonal print gets taken down, carried about and put back up every October, and it usually hangs in the hallway, which is exactly where a small person in a costume is going to charge past at speed. Acrylic handles that. Glass at trick-or-treat height does not. It is the same reason we point it out on the children's prints range.

5. Ordering before the 31st

Halloween is a harder deadline than most gifts. A birthday print that arrives two days late is a bit annoying. A Halloween print that arrives on the 1st of November is no use to anyone until next year.

Everything is made to order, so nothing is sitting on a shelf waiting to be posted. We are not going to quote a turnaround here, because it depends on what else is in the queue that week. What we will say is that early October is comfortable and the last week of October is not. If you are ordering late, message us first and we will tell you honestly whether it is going to land in time.

How we make them

Duffy's is Lee and Sam, working out of our place in Hessle, just outside Hull. Every order is drawn, printed and framed here rather than sent off to a print farm, which is why we can do things like redraw somebody's actual house.

You get a proof before we print anything. Check the spelling of the family name, check we have the right number of ghosts and the right one against each person, check the title reads how you meant it. If something is wrong, say so and we will change it and send another.

That stage matters more than usual here, because personalised items cannot be returned if you simply change your mind. We are not going to bury that. The proof is your chance to catch anything, so give it a proper read rather than a glance.

Where to start

Both designs live in the Halloween collection. The ghost print is the easier gift and the safer bet for a family with kids. The haunted house is the one that gets a reaction, and the one to pick for somebody who genuinely enjoys the season rather than tolerating it.

If you are already thinking about the next thing, our Christmas range is up too, and we have written about the personalised Christmas family prints that work the same way as the ghost family one. The nail in the hallway does not have to sit empty in November.