Gemma 
Happy Spooky Season!
I am… undecided on how I feel about Halloween. I LOVE a wholesome, pumpkin pie, crafty, trick-or-treating Halloween. A copious-amounts-of-chocolate Halloween. However, I do NOT vibe with things that are actually scary- I have watched a grand total of one horror film in my lifetime and, honestly, that was one too many. So, while I like some aspects of Halloween, I’m definitely not a hardcore, spooky Halloween-lover. Nevertheless, I love an occasion and I will take any opportunity for some themed creativity, so, here we are.
All this to say- my October 2023 bullet journal has a Halloween theme. Specifically, it has a cute & gentle Halloween theme, to match my preferred Halloween vibe. This month’s theme is… Trick-Or-Treating Cats, because what is more wholesome than a cartoon cat in a costume? I, for one, can’t think of anything.
This setup is very straightforward- it’s really just a lot of cat doodles and freehand lines. I coloured all my doodles in with colouring pencils, to make it feel even more playful & childlike (read: even less spooky). Honestly, I had so much fun making this setup- it’s not my usual style (I was very inspired by the more doodle-y style of AmandaRachLee!), so I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the process.
Anyway, enough chit-chat. Let’s get into the setup.
Table of Contents
- Inspiration
- Equipment
- Cover Page
- Monthly Calendar
- Blog Planning + Daily Sunshine
- Weeklies
- October Review
- Final Thoughts
Inspiration
The cat on my cover page was inspired by a crochet pattern I came across on Pinterest, by Medaami. You can find the pattern here (you can also check out my Pinterest here!). If I have time over the course of this month, I might give the crochet pattern a try, because it’s SO cute! When it came to dreaming up a theme for my October bullet journal, I just couldn’t shake the image from my head. I figured it would be pretty easy to doodle, even with my (very limited) doodling abilities, so I went for it. I’m so happy I did! I think this theme turned out so well- it’s very Halloween-y and it’s super adorable, so it ticks all my boxes for this month.
Equipment
For this setup, I used the following equipment:
- Muji 0.38mm pen, black.
- Uni-ball Eye Fine UB-157 pen, black.
- Tombow ABT Dual Brush Pens: N15 (black) and N89 (warm grey 1).
- Colouring pencils.
- Sakura Gelly Roll, 10 Bold, white.
- Black paper.
- Glue stick.
- Scissors.
- Ruler.
- Pencil.
- Eraser.
Cover Page
The right-hand side of my Cover Page for this month is super simple- it’s just a doodle of the inspiration cat (which is just a cat in a ghost costume with a pumpkin bag) and the ‘October’ heading. I drew the outline of the cat with my Muji 0.38mm black pen, then coloured it in with colouring pencils. For the heading, I used my black Uni-ball pen (which has a thicker nib than the Muji pen) and a simple, lowercase font.
On the left-hand page, I opted to include a Taylor Swift quote (because, obviously). I drew some bunting along the top, which I coloured in with the 4 main colours that will be used throughout this theme: orange, green, purple and yellow (very Halloween-y colours, no?), before writing the letters of ‘karma‘ on top with my Uni-ball pen. I found the Muji pen did not write very well on top of coloured pencils, but the Uni-ball pen worked perfectly, so I used that. I drew another cat (dressed up as a witch this time) and tried to make it look like the cat was casting a spell with the final word of the quote. It looks a little bit smudged here because I made the mistake of trying to erase my pencil sketchings after I added the coloured pencils. Don’t be like me. Erase the pencil first.
At the bottom of the left-hand page, I added some black paper, decorated with some, what I have fondly coined, cat-fetti. I used this decorated paper throughout the setup and it was very easy to make- I just took my white Sakura Gelly Roll pen and drew an assortment of confetti doodles all over a piece of black paper. To make it into cat-fetti, I added some tiny, cat-shaped confetti pieces, which were basically just large dots with two little pointy ears. Super simple, but I think it really elevated the setup!
Monthly Calendar
I think this Monthly Calendar might be my favourite spread in this whole setup- just LOOK at those little cat pumpkins :’). Again, this was a super simple spread to make- I just used the fine tip of my black Tombow to draw a grid of 6×6 boxes, rounding off the outer corners. Then, I outlined the cat pumpkins with my Muji pen, before colouring them in. I used the same 4 colours as the bunting on the previous page to draw little dots in the grid for the dates, which I wrote in with my Uni-ball pen. I used the same Uni-ball pen to write in the ‘October’ heading, then stuck in some more cat-fetti paper to fill in the space on the left-hand side.
Blog Planning + Daily Sunshine
On the left-hand page of this double-page spread, I have a space for planning my blog content. Last month, I tried out this layout of 4 boxes- 1 per blog post, in which I can write down specific to-do lists for each post. I found it very useful last month, so I’m using it again! I drew each box using my black Tombow pen, then coloured in the bars across the top, following my colour scheme. This page’s cat is dressed as a bat (a bat cat?), so I gave it bat wings and pointy fangs.
On the right-hand page, I have my Daily Sunshine page, where I write down one positive thing that happened each day. Again, I drew the box with my black Tombow pen, then drew little dots with my colouring pencils for the dates, which I wrote in using my Uni-ball pen. I also highlighted every other row with my N89 Tombow pen, just because the box felt a little empty. This page’s cat has a pumpkin hat on- I like to think it is the baby of the group.
Weeklies
Because of how October falls this year, I decided to merge the dates a little within my weeklies (so, I suppose, they aren’t even technically Weeklies…), so I wouldn’t have to set up whole spreads for weeks that just had one or two days of October in them. As always, I used tabs to separate out my weeklies. This month, I coloured in the tabs using the coloured pencils (following the colour scheme, of course), and stuck some more cat-fetti paper on the left-hand side of my first weekly and the right-hand side of my October review page, to make the tabs really stand out.
I kept the style of each weekly very consistent- the only real differences between the 4 spreads is the costume of the cat doodle and the layout of the boxes- otherwise, I drew all of the boxes using the fine tip of my black Tombow pen (just like the rest of the setup), coloured in the header bars in the colour scheme and wrote the days of the week/dates over the top, using my Uni-ball pen. As always, each weekly spread has spaces for my daily to-do lists, a master task list and some notes.
Weekly 1
My first weekly spread spans 1st-8th October. I used two square grids for my daily to-do lists, then put the boxes for notes and tasks in the top right. This weekly’s cat is dressed like a vampire, so it has a red-lined cape and, like the bat cat, some pointy fangs.
Weekly 2
The second weekly is actually a weekly because it spans 7 days: 9th-15th October. For this weekly, I placed the header across the middle of the spread and put the daily to-do list boxes along the top and bottom. I also merged my tasks and notes boxes on this spread. This weekly’s cat is a Franken-Cat (Frankenstein’s Feline Monster?), which has some green face paint, drawn-on scars and a neck bolt.
Weekly 3
For the third weekly, I went for one of my favourite layouts- 8 vertical boxes, with a horizontal space for notes at the top. This week’s cat is a Devil-cat- he has horns, a pointy tail and a pitchfork, ready for all of his devilish endeavours.
Weekly 4
The final ‘weekly’ spans 23rd-31st October- a week plus two days. I also made a little space for the first 5 days of November, which fall in the same calendar week as the last two days of October, just so I can keep better track of my dates. This weekly’s cat is an Anti-Hero-inspired Ghost Cat, with the iconic sunglasses. Unfortunately, this cat is kind of giving… chihuahua? Sigh. It’s not my favourite.
October Review
For the first time in FOREVER, I have decided to switch up the left-hand page of my October Review! I just felt like my favourites section was getting a bit stale and I was finding it particularly hard to choose just one song to write down every month. I’ve replaced the old favourites section with a larger ‘October Playlist’, with spaces for 6 of my favourite songs. I’m really looking forward to filling this in! Other than that, the three other sections: WTA Top 10, ATP Top 10 and #1 Memory, have all remained the same.
Another thing I have kept the same is the space for a polaroid on the right-hand page. This month, instead of a typical frame, I opted for another magical cat casting a spell (except here the cat is a wizard, not a witch). This time, I remembered to erase my pencil sketchings before I went in with the coloured pencils, so it was a lot neater and less smudgy!
Final Thoughts
I wasn’t sure how I would feel about this setup- it was very much a last-minute (as you can probably tell from the fact that we are already into October when I’m posting this!), quick and easy setup- much simpler than my usual themes and very different style! However, having started using it already, I really love it! I think the cats are SO cute, the colours give me such Halloween vibes and I think the functionality of the spreads will be really helpful for the month ahead. Making this setup has really put me in a Halloween-y mood, so I’m really looking forward to the rest of the month!
I’d love to hear what you think of this theme- let me know in the comments below!
Gemma
xxx
