9 Halloween Color Palettes Beyond Orange and Black

Halloween color can move from soft and storybook to botanical or midnight-dark without defaulting to orange and black. These nine three-color starting points pair a distinct mood with a practical scrapbook or journal layout.

The HEX values below are suggested screen references chosen for this article; they were not sampled from ScrapBujo product files and do not guarantee a printed match. Keep handwriting and important captions on a light area with darker text. The hero is an editorial illustration of these suggestions, while the Sweet Spooky collection previews later on this page are separate product artwork.

At a glance

• Soft and playful: Plum, blush and charcoal; lavender, mint and ink; or peach, lilac and cocoa.
• Botanical and autumnal: Sage, cream and pumpkin; burgundy, parchment and moss; or teal, rust and bone.
• Nocturnal and dramatic: Midnight blue, silver and ivory; crimson, olive and antique gold; or fog gray, mauve and black cherry.

How to use the HEX suggestions

Enter a HEX value in a design app that accepts color codes, or treat it as a visual starting point when choosing paper, pens or digital backgrounds. On screen, compare the light writing zone with the darker text color at the size you plan to use. For physical pages, make your own small swatch on the intended printer and paper before committing to a larger project; the values here are not print-tested.

1. Plum, blush and charcoal

Plum #563C63, dusty blush #D8A9B8, charcoal #38343A.

Place an evening portrait on a plum mat and set a blush journaling panel beside it. Use charcoal for the date and short labels so the main note stays on the pale panel.

2. Sage, cream and pumpkin

Sage #8A9A7A, cream #F3EBDD, pumpkin #C97445.

Build a cream recipe or memory card over a sage page, then add two small pumpkin-colored corner shapes. Keep the recipe title and notes together in the cream area.

3. Midnight blue, silver and ivory

Midnight blue #263951, silver gray #B7BBC1, ivory #F5F0E4.

Use midnight blue as a narrow outer frame, place a moonlit photo on an ivory mat, and draw a thin silver-gray divider under the title. Put the date and caption on ivory; silver here is a flat color suggestion, not metallic foil.

4. Lavender, mint and ink

Lavender #B9A6D3, mint #A8D2C1, ink #34333D.

Split a page into a lavender photo panel and a mint note strip. Keep a ghost or candy cluster to one corner and use ink for the outline and a short heading, leaving the note strip open.

5. Burgundy, parchment and moss

Burgundy #702B3A, parchment #E8D9BE, moss #707A53.

Set an old-house or botanical photo across the upper third, then place a tall parchment caption card below it. A moss band anchors the bottom edge; use burgundy only for a small title tab.

6. Peach, lilac and cocoa

Peach #E7A18B, lilac #AA92C6, cocoa #5A4038.

Give a portrait a peach mat and add a lilac side tab for the date. Set a brief cocoa caption on a pale writing card below the image, keeping the darker color off faces and long notes.

7. Teal, rust and bone

Teal #287A78, rust #B76043, bone #F1E9D8.

Frame a landscape photo with a rust corner bracket against teal, then use a bone strip across the lower edge for the place and one memory. Keep the two saturated colors on separate edges rather than behind the writing.

8. Crimson, olive and antique gold

Crimson #A83A3E, olive #697447, antique gold #B39A5E.

Use an olive base with one broad crimson photo mat and a thin antique-gold divider. Place a pale, unprinted card beside the photo for a longer story; gold is a flat printed-color suggestion, not metallic foil.

9. Fog gray, mauve and black cherry

Fog gray #B9BBC1, mauve #9B7C96, black cherry #4A2D3E.

Place a dark evening photo inside a fog-gray frame, add a mauve title strip above it, and reserve black cherry for a small focal label. Keep any handwriting on the light frame or a separate pale card.

What to avoid

Avoid placing a very dark pattern behind names or long notes, where handwriting can become harder to read. Keep busy patterns to one corner, border or photo mat, and leave a quieter area for the story. If a screen swatch looks different from your print, trust a small sample on your intended paper rather than treating the HEX preview as a print guarantee.

How to start today

Choose one idea from this guide, one photograph or writing prompt, and two coordinating papers. Make a loose arrangement without adhesive, write the factual caption, then decide whether the page needs anything else. One completed, readable page is a better beginning than twelve elaborate bases waiting for the “perfect” memory.

Try the style before choosing the full collection

Open Free Sweet Spooky Halloween Digital Paper – 3 Printable Scrapbook Paper Samples to examine a free ScrapBujo sample first. The sample page explains the included files and usage terms and links back to the matching collection when one is available.

Check size before you print

Use the 300 DPI to pixels calculator to confirm the pixel dimensions for your finished size. For full-size square layouts, the 12×12 scrapbook printing guide explains wide-format printers, print services, paper support and true-size settings.

See the quick visual Story for this guide.

Explore Sweet Spooky Halloween Digital Paper on ScrapBujo for the coordinated previews and file details.

View this digital collection on Etsy. This is a digital download; no physical paper is shipped.

Source note: The collection facts and product-preview images in this article were checked against the ScrapBujo catalog on 2026-08-14. That dated catalog note does not source the nine editorial palette suggestions; product previews do not replace a print test.

Collection previews used in this guide

These six images are Sweet Spooky collection previews shown separately from the nine editorial palette suggestions above. They are not palette examples, and the collection files are not represented as using these exact combinations.