It has been a hot minute since I last shared a scrapbook page project here. No time like the present to remedy that! 😊
As I have discussed here previously, my husband and I lost a lifetime of photos in the arson house fire we experienced back in 2016.
This can, as you might imagine, make finding suitable images to scrap quite challenging at times.
Thankfully though, between some photos that were online at the time, others that loved ones have shared with us, and newer images that we’ve captured in the years since that life-altering event, I’m not completely without some snaps to scrap. 🥳
Case in point, the photos on this Halloween layout were housed on the vintage fashion and lifestyle blog that I ran from 2009 – 2017.
They tug at my heartstrings on multiple fronts – not the least of which is that the house depicted in them is the one that we lost to the fire.
Instead of dwelling on that though, I chose to acknowledge the feelings seeing images like this call forth, and then to focus on the positives instead.
These pictures were taken on Halloween 2014. In them, I’m wearing a costume that was sold under the name Sinderella – a dark and spooky take on the classic fairy tale character, Cinderella.
Though it transpired more than 6.5 years ago now, I remember that Halloween night as though it was just yesterday.
The weather was crisp and cool in that telltale way only autumn can deliver. 🍂
As was tradition for us back in those (pre-Covid) days, we hosted a small family Halloween party at our house that evening. Candy was handed out abundantly to the 30 – 40 or so trick-or-treaters from around the neighbourhood that came calling.
Oodles of fun, festive eating, and good cheer was had by all and the night lingered well after the calendar had officially transitioned into November.
Sweetly spooky red rose, pumpkin, and ghost themed Halloween scrapbook layout
There are nearly as many reasons why we scrapbook as there are scrapbookers themselves. Unquestionably, however, one of the main reasons is to preserve some of the memories that really matter to us.
I would still recall this particular Halloween night quite well without these photos. However, having them and the ability not just to look upon, but to also craft with, these images is a sincere blessing.
For this October 31st themed scrapbook page, I took a lot of inspiration from both my costume and the pumpkins pictured in these two festive photos.
While not entirely devoid of the colour (think vampires, blood, bonfire flames, and crunchy crimson hued leaves, for example), red isn’t the most common Halloween hue.
I’m all for utilizing unexpected or less common colours for various holiday projects – those pertaining to Halloween very much included.
In this instance, the impetus for the use of red was the hits of this bold colour that appeared in my Halloween costume and coordinating wig.
The delightful red eyelash trim is a nod to the tattered strips of fabric on my Sinderella costume.
Red roses appear here in two forms: the rose print paper that was used both as a photo matting layer and as one of the (purposely angled) layers towards the bottom of the layout, as well as in the dimensional red paper roses that dot this Halloween layout.
And speaking of dots, red returns again care of the cute red and creamy-white Swiss dot print paper.
These pictures were taken as the last vestiges of daylight slipped into the inky embrace of evening, so I thought it would be fun to create a nighttime themed background. (Plus the moon mirrors the glowing porch light that is visible in one of these photos.)
In honour of the portion of our lost home that is visible in these shots, I also wanted to include some cute haunted house themed paper as well.
Ghosts and Halloween are perpetual BFFs. I’d been itching to use this adorable “boo” ghost themed paper for quite some time now, and as its colours harmonized wonderfully with this particular All Hallows’ Eve layout, onto the page it went.
An array of pumpkins (including a strip of smiling jack-o-lantern print paper), red star embellishments, midnight black fabric leaves, plenty of paper and cardstock layers with torn edges, and a wee bit of journaling penned on a tombstone shaped journaling spot round out this sweetly spooky Halloween layout.
…Which is my creation for this month’s #MakeHalloween365 project share. 😃
Products used to make this festive Halloween costume themed scrapbook page
-Black, white, and dark red cardstock
-Various Halloween themed papers (including journaling spot) – Mischief Manon 12”x12” Paper Pad from Craftsmart (Michael’s brand)
-Full moon print paper and red rose print paper (both from) – The Immortal Love 12”x12” Stack from DCWV
-Red and white Swiss dot print paper – Life In the Country Strawberries with Ice Paper from Maja Design
-Red paper roses (Craft Brand from Dollarama)
-Black fabric leaves (bought at a Halloween Alley popup store)
-Tiny 3D pumpkins – Idea-ology Mini Pumpkins from Tim Holtz
-Red star shaped embellishments – Red Star Cabochons from Jolee’s Boutique
-Red eyelash trim
-Reddish-black ink pen (for journaling) – Vision Elite Red/Black 0.5 mm Pen from Uniball
-Red foam letters – Rosey Foam Letters from Thickers
-Glue gun and glue sticks (optional, but highly useful for adhering the mini pumpkins and other embellishments)
-Dimensional foam, pop dots, or similar to elevate some of your layers
-Adhesive, such as a tape runner, of your choice (I often use my Scotch Tape Glider)
How to make a sweetly spooky Halloween scrapbook page
Begin with a piece of 12×12 inch dark red cardstock for your base.
Take a sheet of the full moon print paper DCWV’s The Immortal Love 12”x12” Stack and tear the top and bottom to create a somewhat jagged, tattered looking edge. Adhere to cardstock base.
Cut a piece of haunted house print paper (from the Mischief Mansion paper pad) so that it covers most of the full moon print paper, but leaves the full moon itself visible. Tear the top edge of this haunted house print paper and adhere to the base layers of the LO
Cut and adhere layers of jack-o-lantern print paper, ghost print paper, rose print paper, and red dotted paper to the layout, as shown. (Note: the dotted paper goes under the bottom of the full moon print piece of paper).
Mat both photos with black cardstock, rose print paper, white cardstock (tear top edge), and a final layer of black cardstock. Adhere to haunted house print paper.
Write out journaling on tombstone shaped journaling piece and adhere between photos.
Adhere red eyelash trim around a portion of the layout and top with eight Jolee’s Boutique Red Star Cabochon embellishments, as shown.
Arrange and adhere red paper roses, black fabric leaves, and Tim Holtz mini pumpkins around photos.
Spell out your desired layout title (in this case the word “Sinderella”) using Thickers red foam letter stickers.
Sit back and let the exciting energy of Halloween night wash over you as you gaze upon your completed layout. 😃
(The journaling on this layout says: “For Halloween 2014, I dressed up as “Sinderella” – a wonderfully dark take on Cinderella. Such a fun, memorable night.”)
The ghost of Halloween past 👻
So much has transpired in our lives since these photos were taken on Halloween 2014. Honestly, it feels like twenty or thirty years have elapsed since then, not “just” six, soon to be seven.
I’m grateful for the memories and photos that remain from that frightfully fa-boo-lous evening, just as I am for every experience and recollection from the thirty-six different Halloween nights I’ve experienced so far in my life.
These memories are happy, friendly ghosts of the Casper variety, if you will, that stoke the fires of my passion for Halloween and ensure that I get even more excited for All Hallows’ Eve each year.
Much like creating Halloween themed projects, such as this sweetly spooky scrapbook layout, does as well! 🥰
Even before the fire, I did not have photos of every Halloween I’ve experienced, and following that fateful happening, I have far fewer still.
This is all the more reason why I’m actively scrapbooking those that I am fortunate to have and ensuring that we take new photos each October 31st.
Future layouts to, no doubt, follow! 😄
If you enjoy Halloween and aren’t already doing so, I invite you to join me in scrapbooking your memories of this marvellous annual event and hope that you’ll tag your craft projects with #MakeHalloween365 so that I can see (and be inspired by!) them, too. 🎃🌹🖤
Great costume, fun scrapbook page. I never tire of Halloween themed art. Oh, and thanks for all the nice comments you left.
Thank you very much, Ally!!! I remember you commenting on the blog post in which I first shared these Halloween photos back in the days of my vintage blog. It warms my heart more than the flickering flame of a glowing jack-o-lantern that now, multiple years later, you did so here on this post, too.
You are sincerely welcome. It’s my pleasure! My time online has been sparse and sporadic at best in recent weeks/months, so I tend to be “batch commenting”, if you will, when I am able to catch up a bit on visiting my fave blogs.
Many wishes for a sunny, safe, and thoroughly enjoyable summer coming your way!
🖤 Autumn
A super layout Autumn, fabulous photographs – lots of memories, even if some are not very positive.
As always you have included lots of great details and added some fun texture into your design. I really must do more scrapbook layouts – there are just so many things I would like to do and not enough time to do them all!
Pauline – Crafting with Cotnob
x
Thank you deeply, dear Pauline. You are such a sweet soul!
How right you are regarding the plethora of things one would like to do and the serious lack of hours in a given day/week/month to get said things done. I feel that way frequently myself, too (especially as a born workaholic who absolutely loves to be busy and productive). Though do try to focus more on what I am able to accomplish instead of what I may not be able to get to.
I hope that your summer is off to a fantastic start and that you’re able to squeeze in making a scrapbook page or two in the second half of this year.
🖤 Autumn
That’s such a fun way to commemorate your Hallowe’en at your old home, Autumn! I love your spooky outfit – red and black look amazing with orange! I find it interesting how the addition of a colour to a palette changes the whole vibe, from spooky to more comforting. The red eyelash trim is so fun, and I LOVE the tombstone ‘note’.
Hope you are enjoying some hot summer weather – it’s supposed to hit 30 here today! :-O
Thank you very much across the board, my dear friend. I first blogged these photos on my (now retired) vintage blog back in 2014 and loved being able to feature them again here on my current site. Who knows where they may pop up again down the line!
Things got ridiculously warm around these parts as June tumbled into July – the hottest that I’m aware of Armstrong reaching was 46 – 47C. That is, no two ways about it, the warmest that either Tony or I have ever felt before – which is saying a lot given that he is originally from the beautiful sun-baked country of Italy. I know that that the mercury shot above 40C on the Island, too, and really hope that you and L were able to stay cool during those absurdly hot days.
Big hugs,
🖤 Autumn
What a fabulous and fun scrapbook page, Autumn – even if looking back at those times might be a little bittersweet. So glad to hear you were able to at least retrieve some of your photos! And your Sinderella outfit is stunning, so totally you! xxx
Thank you deeply, dear Ann. I truly appreciate your empathic kindness.
I am immensely grateful for the photos that we’ve been able to track down online, as well as those shared with us my loved ones. These avenues have made the difference between having virtually no photos of our lives before the fire (in 2016) and being blessed with a handful of images that document our lives up until that point.
Given my passion for Halloween and paper crafting projects that channel October 31st, it’s likely I’ll scrapbook and share some of the other pre-fire Halloween snaps here that we are lucky to still have. I don’t have too many such images though, so am pacing myself a bit on that front (though, happily, new ones come along each year to help add to the number of Halloween memories I can document in paper crafting form).
Many sincere thanks again, my sweet friend.
🖤 Autumn
Gorgeous page Autumn, I love the photos of you in that awesome Halloween costume! Beautiful colors and textures and the little ghosts are so cute! Have a great week.
Tammy x
Thank you very much for your wonderfully sweet comment, dear Tammy.
Isn’t eyelash trim the coolest? It’s not that easy, I find, to track down in person where we live, but sometimes I hit upon skeins of it at dollar stores in the general vicinity and all but do a happy jig right there in the shop when that happens. 😄
🖤 Autumn
Your spooky Sinderella Halloweeen outfit is fantastic and so is the scrapbook page. I love how creative you always are.
Internet is sometimes a blessing. One can always find old photographs there. It is good you were able to salvage some photographs that way after loosing them in a fire. Maybe I should to do some scrapbook with photographs as well.
Thank you mightily across the board, dear Ivana. I sincerely appreciate your kindness and support.
How right you are! Even photos that, in some cases, I now cringe over in some cases, I am grateful beyond measure to have – especially having lost most of the pictures from before the arson fire that we experienced. They really are worth their weight in gold and then some.
If you decide to give scrapbooking a shot, please don’t hesitate to share any of your projects that you’d like with me. I’d be delighted and honoured to see them, sweet lady.
🖤 Autumn
I’m so sorry to hear that you went through such a terrible experience. I am glad you have been able to share this lovely memory with such a lovely layout. I also want to say thank you for your lovely comments and supportive wishes on my blog posts this year. I have shared some memories and difficult moments since dad died and I have really appreciated your comments and kind thoughts. Love Dawn x
Sweet Dawn, you are wholeheartedly welcome. There is such an important catharsis that can come, I find, with speaking publicly about some of the profoundly challenging/painful experiences that we go through in life.
Many thanks in turn for your wonderful, caring support and kindness. It is appreciated beyond measure. 🙏
Immense hugs,
🖤 Autumn
You are so beautiful and creative. I am always so jealous of your designs. Haha!
*Blush!!!* Thank you SO much, dearest Willow. I honestly cannot begin to tell you how much your awesomely kind and supportive words mean to me.
I just had a thought… If you’d ever like to share photos + accompanying memories with me, I’d be delighted to create a scrapbook page or two (or more) for you, my treasured friend.
🖤 Autumn
Such a beautiful page and layout, ive enjoyed drinking my cup of tea and looking at all the little details you’ve added, it all comes together perfectly. Hugs Emmax
You’re sweeter than candy corn, dear Emma. Thank you mightily!
It struck me while I was creating this LO that I’ve come to look forward to Halloween even more in recent (post-fire) years because it gives me/us the ability to create and document new October 31st memories, some of which in turn get to appear in my paper crafting.
Many thanks again. I really appreciate and am touched by your kindness.
🖤 Autumn
This is so lovely. I remember that costume. Beautiful card as always. Have a lovely day, dear. 🙂
Thank you deeply, dearest Sanne. I am seriously touched that you remember this Halloween costume. That was such a fun, memorable night. I’m very grateful that I was able to retrieve images from it via my previous blog and to find new ways to celebrate them here on my current one.
I adored that costume (and wig), and likely would have worn it again, had things not unfolded as they did. Who knows, maybe I’ll put together a second version of “Sinderella” one day. 😃
Just 109 days left to go, as I type these words, until our beloved Halloween returns. May they be a time of joy and wellness, serenity and scores of festive happenings for you, my sweet friend.
🖤 Autumn
This is fabulous! I especially love the eyelash trim! It really adds to the glamour of the costume you had.
xoxo
-Janey
Thank you very much, dear Janey. It’s hard to believe that the better part of seven years have zipped by since I first documented these photos on my vintage blog. In a way, it seems like they were captured mere days ago, in another, it feels like a thousand lifetimes have elapsed since then.
I’m grateful that these snaps were still online. Even if it can be tough at times to see our pre-fire house and to reflect on all that was lost + changed as a result of that fateful event, ultimately, I feel far more happiness than sadness when I see these images and relive the priceless memories they celebrate.
Here’s to making plenty of awesome new ones this Halloween season!
🖤 Autumn
I love this spooky Sinderella Theme! You certainly did the fairy tale justice. The eyelash trim was one of my favorite additions, and I love all of the red that you added.
Beautiful, Autumn!!
Debi
Thank you very much, my cherished friend. I am super grateful to have a wee handful of pre-fire photos still and to be able to share some of them here on my current blog.
I pace myself in scrapbooking them, as I know their numbers of limited. By the same token though, I am keen to document those beloved memories and don’t horde them too strictly.
With just 109 days left to go until Halloween returns again, I’m already looking forward to the new memories and photos that will transpire this year, likely some of which will in turn be scrapbooked as time goes on.
Big hugs & the loveliest of wishes for a beautiful lead-up to our treasured fall time.
🖤 Autumn
I remember that costume. I love the trim and the adorable little pumpkins! (It’s never occurred to me to ask until now…in terms of your more 3d scrapbook pages how do you store them?)
Thank you so much, my wonderfully dear friend. It is immensely heart-touching that you recall this costume more than 6.5 years after it first appeared on my previous blog.
Fantastic question!!! Generall speaking, I do find that I can get most of my more dimensional scrapbook pages into standard 12×12 inch sized (clear plastic) page protectors. I usually need to place them in so that whatever side (of the scrapbook page) has the most elements sticking up or off it is at the open end of the page protector.
For extra “bulky” pages, shadow boxes are another option, as is displaying them out in the open (such as clipped to a piece of sturdy twine or ribbon with clothes pegs or upright on floral frogs).
I’ve long wished that at least one paper crafting company would put out oversized page protectors for those of us who create highly dimensional scrapbook pages, as this would make storing such pages even easier and reduce the risk of (page) elements possibly getting squished or damaged by standard sized protectors. Hopefully one day!
Big hugs & the sunniest of mid-July wishes coming your way!
🖤 Autumn