Planning My October Daily

What is an October Daily, you ask? It’s a cross between a daily diary, a scrapbook and an art journal to document the month of October. The main theme throughout the book is Halloween. I LOVE Halloween! Anyone who knows me can verify that. This was a trend started about 3 years ago on YouTube. It will be the first year I am participating.

You can find an October Daily 101 blog post here by Serena Bee, who has one of my favourite YouTube channels, Serena Bee Creative. It is full of tips and ideas to get you started. She also has a list of daily prompts if you cannot decide what to document each day. Use them in order or randomly as needed. There is a video associated with this blog post that I highly recommend watching if you are interested in trying this.

I will be using my marigold coloured, Carpe Diem, A5 size planner binder for the project. With that in mind, I went to Michaels last night to see if they had their 12” X 12” Halloween cardstock paper pads out yet. A few people had posted photos on Facebook of what they found at their local locations, so there was a 50/50 chance that mine had them out too.

Hurray! There was a small, Halloween papercrafting display in one of the middle aisles that included what I was looking for. There was also some themed stickers and washi tape available. Michaels has two paper collections this year. One is called Hocus Pocus and the other is called Moonlit Manor. The latter one is very monochromatic with primarily black, white and shades of grey only. It did not really appeal to me although I know that some people really like that dark and gloomy look.

Single Sided Paper Pad

I preferred the Hocus Pocus collection using mostly black, white and orange, with very vintage looking images and icons. I purchased both of the 12” X 12” paper pads in the collection for 50% off the regular price. One is double sided with a different design on each side and the other pad is one sided with ‘treatments’. That means that some of the images are slightly raised and glossy, while the rest of the page has a matte finish. I will use the one sided paper for Halloween pocket letters, greeting cards and ATCs.

Double Sided Paper Pad

The pages for my October Daily will be cut out from the double sided pages. Pre-planning is crucial for a project like this. Everyone who has participated before advises it. Having a lot of the design work done for each day will make it quicker to pull together in October. I do have some ideas of what I want to include on the page each day but I can always include more things as I progress, adding extra pages if required. There is a Facebook page (Halloween & October Daily Inspiration) you can join for ideas and encouragement if you want to try this. 

First step will be to pull out the big paper cutter and get the pages cut out. Each page will be 5.25” X 8.25”. Next, I will punch out the holes so they will fit in the planner. I may also punch out reinforcements in a contrasting cardstock and glue them on to make the holes more durable.

If I manage to get that much accomplished today, I will be happy. As I move forward with this, I will post updates on how it is progressing. Stayed tuned!