Aloha everyone–Andrea here. Well we started our party a little early, so scroll down to read all about the happenings at SM! We’re having a fabulous blog train around the world filled with the SM team members ideas of paradise. There are 35 stops along the way. Each stop you’ll receive either an 8×8 quick page or a 5×7 brag book-sized quick page created from Hawaiian Happy Hour, SM’s newest collab filled with tropical colors. It’s free this week with a $15 purchase in the SM shop and with everything* on sale today for 40% and 30% through Thursday night you’re bound to be able to find lots of products you want to earn this beauty.

I love our blog trains so much, it gives me a good reason to go visit everyone on the team’s blog all in one day!

So here’s the itinerary:

1. Andrea http://andilynn.wordpress.com
2. Britt http://brittishdesigns.blogspot.com
3. Heather L http://joyrevisited.blogspot.com
4. Denise http://www.denisebeattyoriginals.blogspot.com/
5. Tater http://taterscraps.blogspot.com/
6. Kimbytx http://kimbytx.blogspot.com/
7. Melanie http://melanie3boys.blogspot.com/
8. Kim http://geekydiva.wordpress.com
9. Emilee http://morelovemorejoy.blogspot.com
10.Chia http://keepingupwiththekunzs.blogspot.com/
11. Jaime http://jaimeward.blogspot.com
12. Krista http://sahlinstudio.blogspot.com/
13. Wendy http://wendys-craftycreations.blogspot.com/
14. Sya http://scrap-stuff.blogspot.com
15. Stacy H http://stacysbackdoor.blogspot.com/
16.Tracie http://traciescrapsofmylife.blogspot.com/
17. Michelle http://mickeybdesigns.blogspot.com
18. Christy http://thewerners.wordpress.com
19. Cyndi http://cyndi146.blogspot.com/
20. Natasha http://bcnatty.blogspot.com
21. Stefanie http://stefgonedigi.blogspot.com
22. Maria http://scrapmuss.blogspot.com/
23. Heather Nay http://haynay.blogspot.com
24. Mary http://plumdumplingdesigns.blogspot.com
25. Kari http://karistamps.blogspot.com
26. Dawn http://winkasheartscraps.blogspot.com
27. Heather B.http://heb1976.blogspot.com
28. Leslie http://ggdigitaldesigns.blogspot.com
29. Kelly http://insprink.blogspot.com/
30. Jeni http://www.jeniscraftyblog.blogspot.com
31. Anna http://annabvdesigns.blogspot.com/
32. Sharon http://www.digitalcreations.typepad.com
33. Kelly K http://kkklatt.blogspot.com/
34. Happy http://happyscrapgirldesigns.blogspot.com/
35. Rachelle http://www.chelles-creations.blogspot.com/

Have fun! Please report broken links in the comments here (hopefully there aren’t any, but you never know in this age of computers!)

Happy (inter)National Scrapbook Day!

Have you ever wondered why some of your pages just look ‘right’ and others not so much?
Today’s Saturday Special is about leading lines, one of the techniques you can use to make your page design more pleasing to look at!
In the western world, the most natural way for our eyes to wonder over a page is from top to bottom, and from left to right.
This is something we can use to our advantage!
When we design a layout, we first need to determine what element we want to focus attention on. This will most often be your focal picture.
This is the picture most important for telling the story on this particular page. It can be your only photo, or one of a series.
You will seldom find this focal point in the top left hand corner of your page, but any orientation can work perfectly!
Once you have placed and/or cropped your focal point, you can help the viewer to really focus on this spot by ‘leading his eye’ towards it.
There are many ways of accomplishing this. You can create a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line, consisting of more (usually smaller) photos or elements.
You can use ribbons, strips of paper, scattered elements or brushes to create this viewing line.
You can use word art or text paths leading towards or even around your focal area.
This viewing guideline can be bold and obvious or very subtle.

Please check out a few examples of great design from our galleries:

This layout by Denise, using smaller photos to create a viewing guide:

Here’s one of Christy’s pages, using ribbon and elements to create a leading line:

And here’s one of mine, using wordart and a few scattered elements to lead the eye:

And here’s some more inspiration the wonderful CT girls made:

Stacy used The Natural Wonder Collab Kit, part of the Queen of Scrap particiation prizes:

Andrea used the contents of a NSD Grab Bag by Tracie Stroud

Christine used Berry crush by Erica Zane and Mary Koegelenberg Creations:

And our resident Queen of Scrap Denise used the Hawaiian happy Hour Collab Kit:

Your challenge is to make a page using the design principal of leading lines!

Here’s for a quick recap of the ScrapMatters challenge rules:
- You have until the end of this month to complete your challenge
- Post your page in the Saturday Special Gallery, and link it back to this forum.
- Completing this layout earns you a point in the Matter of Scrap Challenge System.
- At the end of the month, I will choose my favourite layout which will earn another point.
- If you use a new product, that’s one additional point.
Please indicate you have used a new product when you leave your links  in the forum.
- This layout has to be unique to this challenge (with the exception of the Queen Of Scrap Competition!).

Have fun, can’t wait to see your beautifully designed pages!