Halloween scrapbooking -- save your little pumpkins

by Julie Snyder

It's Halloween -- a time of year packed with moments you'll want to capture and preserve for years to come!

Don't pile all of those photos and tuck them away in a drawer.

Instead, gather your favorites and create uniquely themed scrapbook pages for Halloween!

If you have way too many, don't panic! You can design a series of mini-themes for your Halloween scrapbooking. Besides, you know guests and family alike will want to look at the pages over and over.

Tips to spark that creativity

Activities to scrap

Orchards, mazes, pumpkin hunts: During visits to the apple orchard, pumpkin patch, or corn maze, watch for those wide-eyed glimpses. your best shots might be a child taking bites out of a juicy apple, wandering amid hundreds of pumpkins searching for "just the right" one or peeking through corn stalks.

Going on a hayride: Get a picture of your child climbing on, reacting to poking straw, giggles or fear captured at the bumps -- all with beautiful fall colors depicted in the background. Catch the jumping and running off if you can.

Bonfire fun: Portray the magic of the night, the crackling fire, hot sticky marshmallows, laughter, sing-a-longs, cuddling in blankets, smoke whisking past and those captivated stares during ghost story-time.

Halloween time crafting: Capture the coloring, pasting, cutting out pictures, decorating windows and doors or an entire room or making a Halloween card for grandma.

Pumpkin carving: "Guts, guts, guts!" Don't miss that priceless look of disgust with hands covered in pumpkin slime, scooping out, paper-covered table, drawing, watching the cutting, putting in candle/flashlight and amazement with the final product.

Attending harvest festival and Oktoberfests: Capture the crowds, the smells, the food, the games, the music and more!

Costume events: Look for costumed events throughout the month such as Halloween parties, library and school functions, contests and "boo at the zoo."

Trick-or-treat time: Your shots might include getting ready, heading out, the flashlight walk, trepidation, at the door, peeking at the "loot" and meeting with friends.

End of the day: Capture your wee pumpkin half costumed, tired, with a piece of candy, contented and falling asleep.

Layouts, embellishments and more

Choose crisp, autumn colors to showcase your images. Select up to three main colors with a fourth potential accent color. The accent color may be found within your photo or you can pull colors into your design from your child's costume.

Add texture through dimensional pieces like leaves, raised stickers, stitching, buttons and bright colored papers to coordinate.

Spook it up. Draw a spider web with a metallic marker on black paper or get spider background page. Use spooky lettering and a play on words for your titles. Would one of these fit your tiny ghosts, spooks and pumpkins?

✓ A Bewitching Halloween
✓ Cutest Lil' Pumpkin in the Patch
✓ Spook-tacular
✓ Where the Wild Things Are
✓ The Boo Crew
✓ Mummy's Helpers

Offset images from one another. Use portions of the page for journaling. Try grid patterns for multiple photos. Highlight a specific portion of the photo with stickers or stitching.

Extend the page. Use cutouts to give unique touches such as adding a pumpkin stalk or allowing cri-cut borders and shapes to develop the theme for you.

Time passes with our little ones far too quickly. Give yourself a "treat" to last a lifetime! Have you started your scrapbooks?

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto.