20 Halloween Junk Journal Ideas (Spooky but Sweet)

Halloween and junk journaling were made for each other, and it took me an embarrassingly long time to notice.

Think about what this craft already loves: aged paper, torn edges, faded ink, old apothecary labels, moths, dried flowers, things that look like they’ve been forgotten in an attic. That is Halloween, the old-fashioned kind, before it turned into orange plastic.

So here are twenty Halloween junk journal ideas that lean vintage rather than novelty. Some are whole spreads, some are small details you can add in ten minutes. Take whichever ones make you want to go and find your scissors.

The one rule that makes Halloween pages work: go old, not bright. Swap traffic-cone orange for burnt amber, and swap flat black for deep brown-black. Everything else follows from that.

Vintage & antique pages (1–5):

1. An apothecary shelf spread:

Draw or print a row of bottles, then label each one in shaky handwriting: Belladonna. Moth Wings. Bitter Root. Age the labels with tea, tear the corners, and glue them slightly crooked. This is the single most satisfying Halloween page you can make, and it needs no drawing skill at all, the wonkier the labels, the better it looks.

2. A page built on an old dictionary spread:

Find a dictionary page containing a word like ghost, hollow, night or moth. Circle it faintly in pencil, then build your layers around it, leaving the word visible. Half the atmosphere is done before you start.

3. A found-photograph page:

Old anonymous photographs, the kind in charity shop boxes, are quietly unsettling in the best way. Glue one down, tear a paper frame around it, and add nothing else except a date that may or may not be true.

4. A moth and insect study:

Moths are having a moment, and they suit this craft perfectly. Print a few in muted browns and greys, cut them out, and pin them across the page like a Victorian specimen board. Add a tiny handwritten label under each one.

5. A crumbling letter page:

Write a short, unfinished note in your own handwriting, something that trails off mid-sentence. Age it hard: tea stain, crumple, ink the edges, singe if you’re careful. Glue it half-tucked under another layer so it looks found rather than made.

Spooky but sweet (6–10):

6. A friendly little ghost page:

Not everything has to be eerie. A round, soft ghost cut from cream paper, sitting on a page of tea-stained script, is genuinely charming, and it’s the page most people’s children want to make with them.

7. A black cat corner:

A single black cat silhouette in the bottom corner of an otherwise plain vintage page. Nothing else. Restraint is what makes it look intentional rather than cluttered.

8. Pumpkins in the wrong color:

Print or cut pumpkins in cream, dusty pink, pale sage or deep burgundy instead of orange. It looks unexpectedly beautiful, and instantly separates your page from every other Halloween page online.

9. A trick-or-treat memory page:

If you have children, keep the actual bits: a sweet wrapper, a scrap of costume fabric, the receipt from the pumpkin. Glue them in with the date. In ten years this will be the page you come back to.

10. A spooky-cute tuck spot:

Make a simple pocket from a black or brown envelope, then let a little ghost tag peek out of the top. Interactive pages are always more fun to flip through, and this is the easiest one to build.

Witchy & atmospheric (11–15):

11. A moon phase page:

Eight small circles across the page showing the phases, inked and slightly imperfect. Underneath, a line about how you felt that month. Simple, and it works in any journal, not just a Halloween one.

12. A herb and botanical page:

Press or print rosemary, sage, lavender and thyme. Glue them down with handwritten Latin-ish names. It reads as witchy and as cottagecore at the same time, depending on who’s looking.

13. A recipe page for something that isn’t food:

Write out a “recipe” for a quiet evening, a good sleep, or a brave week, in the format of an old cookery book. It’s a lovely, gentle way to journal without journaling.

14. A candle-burn page:

Rub a candle stub over your background before applying ink or tea, the wax resists, leaving pale ghostly patches. It’s an old technique and it looks like age rather than a craft effect.

15. A tarot-style card tuck:

Cut a few pieces of card to tarot size, decorate the backs identically, and slot them into a pocket. Write on the fronts whenever you like. It gives the spread depth and something to do later.

Structure & interactive pages (16–20):

16. A window flap page:

Cut a small square flap in the top layer, fold it open like a shutter, and glue something underneath, an eye, a moon, a word. Every single person who opens your journal will lift it.

17. A cobweb corner using lace:

Glue a triangle of lace or cut doily into the corner of a page, then ink over it lightly. It reads instantly as cobweb, and it uses something you almost certainly already have.

18. A layered “torn wallpaper” background:

Glue three papers down, then tear the top two partially away so the layers show through like a peeling wall. Ink the torn edges heavily. It’s five minutes of work and looks like far more.

19. A folded fortune-teller insert:

The paper fortune tellers we all made at school. Fold one from aged paper, write something wry inside each flap, and tuck it into a pocket.

20. A page you leave mostly empty:

One small element, one line of writing, and a lot of quiet space. Halloween pages get crowded fast, an almost-empty spread in the middle of the section makes everything around it look better.

Choosing a mood before you start:

If you’re not sure which direction to take a page, pick a mood first and let it decide your colours and materials.

If you’d like ready-made pieces to print for any of these, bottles, ghosts, moths, pumpkins, our Halloween sets print at home and cut down in minutes. Have a peek in our Etsy shop.

Three small things that make Halloween pages look expensive:

Ink every single edge. On Halloween pages this matters more than any other season. A cut-out with a crisp white edge looks like a printout; the same piece dragged across a brown ink pad looks a hundred years old.

Use brown-black, not pure black. Pure black sits on top of vintage paper and refuses to blend. A very dark brown, or black softened with a tea wash, settles into the page.

Let one thing be the star. Bats and pumpkins and ghosts and cobwebs on one spread cancel each other out. Pick one, and let the rest be background.

Frequently asked questions:

1- When should I start my Halloween junk journal pages?

Late September is ideal. It gives you all of October to add to the section slowly, a page or two at a time, rather than trying to make everything in the last week, which is how Halloween journaling stops being fun.

2- Do I need special Halloween supplies?

Not really. Brown ink, black paper and whatever you already collect will carry most of these ideas. The one genuinely useful purchase is a brown ink pad, and it costs a few pounds and lasts for years.

3- How do I make Halloween pages look vintage instead of tacky?

Change the colours. Shop-bought Halloween is bright orange and pure black; vintage Halloween is amber, sepia, bone and brown-black. Swap those two things and the whole page changes character.

4- Can I make a whole Halloween journal, or just a few pages?

Both work. A few pages inside your regular journal is the easier start. A whole small Halloween journal is lovely if you enjoy the theme and want somewhere to keep it all together year after year.

5- What can I use if I have no Halloween-themed paper?

Old book pages, brown kraft, black card and tea-stained printer paper cover almost everything here. Halloween is a mood more than a set of materials — aged paper does most of the work.

6- Are these ideas suitable for beginners?

Yes. Ideas 6, 7, 17 and 20 need almost no skill and look excellent. Start with the cobweb corner, it’s lace, glue and thirty seconds of ink.

7- How do I make pages child-friendly?

Stay in the spooky-cute group. Ghosts, cats, pumpkins in odd colours and trick-or-treat memory pages are all lovely to make with children, and the wonkiness they bring genuinely improves the page.

8- What’s the easiest way to add atmosphere quickly?

A tea wash over the whole background before you start. Ten minutes of drying time, and every layer you add afterwards sits on something that already looks old.

Pick one and start tonight:

You don’t need a plan for the whole month. Choose one idea from this list, the apothecary labels, or the lace cobweb, or the ghost in the corner, and make that single page this evening.

Halloween sections build themselves once the first page exists. It’s only ever the blank one that’s hard.

New to all this? Start with What Is Junk Journaling? Ready to give your papers that aged look? Try How to Age & Distress Paper, or pick your colours first with Halloween Junk Journal Colour Palettes. ♡