Every major holiday, I make a countdown poster for my family, in order to keep track of how we're celebrating - especially in movie form - over the course of the season. I've made them as a part of our Christmas preparations for the past three years, but last year was the first time I made one to celebrate Halloween... and not only did it go over well, but people were so interested in it, that I figured I might do something a little different, this year, too!
Because various friends kept asking last year if I had a version to share, I decided that before I completed coloring in my 2018 Halloween Movie Countdown, I would actually use the Notes section of my iPhone, to scan it into a shareable JPG format. I upped the Brightness and Saturation levels, so that the lines would become thicker and more translucent, and boom! I had a shareable, traceable, printable of my Halloween Countdown!
On the countdown - which is themed like a spooky wall in a hallway, covered in various picture frames - there are 20 blank spaces into which you can write or draw whatever you'd like. If you don't need that many empty spaces, you can fill in the extra as you please (like I did), or, if you need more, you can add in frames in the spaces beyond... and because you're inking things in yourself, it will totally blend in! For instance, if you're not too into the movie countdown idea, you can simply add in 11 more frames, and make a countdown of days to Halloween instead!
And to accommodate everyone's different preferences, I blanked out the section in the title where I had written "Movie," in anticipation of something else I had in mind...
While my Movie Countdown is proudly displayed on the pantry door in our kitchen, I customized my little personal printable version to fit into my Book Journal, as a personal OcTBR lineup of sorts! 20 frames is a lot of books to try and tackle in one month - even if some of them are favorites pulled from the stack of themed children's books in our living room - so I'm using it as more of a source of inspiration, than an actual countdown.
Some of the titles included are old faves - like the Diviners series, from Libba Bray, which I'm trying to reread, so that I can mentally catch up with the latest installment, Before the Devil Breaks You, before I read that, too - while some are somehow even older faves (like all of R. L. Stine's Fear Street double feature re-releases I've been saving to read all summer!). Others, like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, or Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves, are some longer creepy reads that I might not want to read all the way through, but which might be worth dusting off and leafing through over the course of the month. From Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," to a favorite illustrated version of Mary Howitt's classic poem, "The Spider and the Fly," I've got quite a lot to choose from when it comes to enjoying spooky seasonal fare.
In addition, in between the frames, I wrote in various ideas I had for perfect Fall and Halloween themed #bookstagram photos, in case I need any kinds of inspiration in that category, too!
So, naturally, I want to make sure all my blogging friends can share in the fun: you can download your own version of my printable, too, and use it as either a source of bookish inspiration, use it to countdown Halloween favorites like my family, or do whatever you'd like! Just, you know, if you do, let me know about it: leave a comment down below with the deets on how you plan on using it, or tag me in any Instagram posts you make with my bookstagram profile, @playinginthepages!
What's on your OcTBR this Halloween season? Did you download my printable? Let me know, in the comments below!
This is so great! I definitely have my own goodreads shelf dedicated to what I want to read but I love the idea of making a movie one too and posting it somewhere as a good remember. :)
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