So, even though I didn't do a blackout bingo card this month...

[Valgal]

I'm already itching for March's, lol! Anyone else ever do that? I didn't have enough time to complete this month's card, so I'm totally ready to attack the next one.

[jumbbumble]

i am ready for march but need to finish 2 more layouts this month for a black out

[Saar]

Yay, I'm excited for March too.

Good luck with those final 2 Melanie.

[Suzs]

I always am excited for the next card too.

[Valgal]

The good thing is that March is usually my 'break out' month... meaning I start pulling out of my winter hibernation crap. So I should have more to scrap about, lol!

[JennNtheBoys]

I'm so ready for March! I have been struggling with February's card so I need the new one to jump start my Mojo (I usually go back to challenges I skipped even after the month is over).

[Valgal]

I struggled with it too, just didn't seem like I had enough to work with for the challenges. I didn't want to dig back into 2015 photos because I JUST finished that album and uploaded it to print, so I only have 2016 pics and events to work with. I scrapped enough together for a 30% card though.

[anelia]

The February card was way too challenging so I know what you mean. I'm also waiting for the March's because:
1) I'm always excited about the new challenges
2) With this month's game I'm curious to see if any of the suggested challenges will make it

[Nettio]

Originally Posted by anelia

The February card was way too challenging so I know what you mean. I'm also waiting for the March's because:
1) I'm always excited about the new challenges
2) With this month's game I'm curious to see if any of the suggested challenges will make it

Do you mind if I ask what made the February card way too challenging? I know the team is always trying to find the right balance of keeping things interesting & doable so any feedback you have helps!

[mariewilcox]

I totally get it Val - I hardly ever do a blackout (or even a row or other pattern) but I always can't wait for the next month to redeem myself

I struggled with February's card too and gave up after a few layouts (some of it was due to time constraints) but I really felt there were just too many "self" prompts. I won't scrap a layout I normally wouldn't scrap just to do a challenge because I don't have enough time to scrap as it is, so if I can't use the photos I have already I won't do it. I've done a huge Book of Me already and I don't take selfies. Also, I just hate February for scrapping in general because I hate valentine kits and lovey dovey prompts

[anelia]

Sure.
First, I'd like to say that the card was fun and I didn't mind any of the challenges because I think I can do whatever is asked and I know it's impossible all the prompts to always appeal to everyone but what made the card somehow hard *for me* was that it had prompts which I personally wouldn't include in a photo book and so I had to scrap for the sake of challenges. Another thing is that some of prompts that were very similar to past ones.
For example:
- scrap a bad day/event - I'm not used to scrapping bad things because I try to forget them
- spin-a-lift your own layout - I feel we've had too many lifts recently and lifting myself was pretty awkward to me
- photo challenge - before/after - while this is not hard on its own, we had a very similar challenge "now and then" in January.
- top 10s - I suppose those are because of the 10th anniversary which is fine and nice but last month we had top 10 things that make me smile and this month we had top 10 things I love (I think the difference is too vague)
- the leap day prompt was probably the hardest for me because I can't imagine including a page about an extra 24 hours in a photo book.

I'd like to say that I absolutely LOVE the quote challenges every month Those are the best for me because they can be interpreted in so many ways and they allow for a wide range of scrapping.

[rdjrneace]

I too found the February difficult mainly because of the selfies and "all about me". I do believe in including myself in layouts but it seemed this month was alot more about "me".

I agree about quote challenges - Love those and also love font challenges.

[rdjrneace]

I too found the February difficult mainly because of the selfies and "all about me". I do believe in including myself in layouts but it seemed this month was alot more about "me".

I agree about quote challenges - Love those and also love font challenges.

[KingsQueen82]

I am! I finally jumped into Bingo and got a blackout my first time. Now I'm itching to keep it up!

[Valgal]

Originally Posted by Nettio

Do you mind if I ask what made the February card way too challenging? I know the team is always trying to find the right balance of keeping things interesting & doable so any feedback you have helps!

Can I jump in here? I wasn't going to say anything, but since the issue has come up...

I was frustrated with the 'use Making Sweet Memories' challenge. Before I looked closely and noticed the challenge, I had already decided not to purchase it because I didn't think I would use it as much, and I was on a scrapbook budget and trying to make the best use of my money this month. So, I felt kinda cheated out of my blackout/40%. Even if I did every single other prompt I wouldn't be able to fully complete the card. You guys have never had a purchase requirement type challenge before, so I was actually pretty surprised. Unless I'm totally misunderstanding the challenge.

I didn't want to bring it up because I don't want to sound like a jerk, I really love all the challenges and how much work you girls put into keeping us inspired. I truly do!

[icindi]

I really had trouble with coming up with ideas for a few of February's challenges: my secret talent, we go together like.....and....., and what would you do with an extra 24 hours. The top 10 was hard until I decided to use my son's current top 10 so I wasn't repeating January's. Maybe the key is to tweak the challenges a bit to work for you while still scrapping in the spirit of the challenge. I was definitely challenged and scrapped things I wouldn't have otherwise, so mission accomplished!

[jak]

I found February a bit of a challenge too... like others have said, a bit too much 'about me' stuff. The occasional page like that is fine but I tend not to scrap about myself very much. I'm more about scrapping my kids/family and I like my pages to be ones I could put in a photobook. In most cases I try to turn the prompts into something about my kids, and that works 90% of the time. Top 10 faves/ interview type pages every other month start to get repetitive so I can't use all those pages in my books.

I love the ones with quotes though - I can add that to a page about nothing in particular, with a nice picture of someone, and always use a page like that.

Oh - I just read Anelia's post - I think she just said pretty much exactly what I said!!

[pewtertm]

Yes, me, definitely. I got nearly halfway finished (no patterns or straight lines though), and then my dog got very ill and we had to put him down I have had a hard time scrapping specific things since then. Hoping that life is more normal soon and I can get back into the challenges.

[mrsashbaugh]

I still have 2 more layouts to do for February but excited to see what March will be.

[icindi]

Originally Posted by pewtertm

Yes, me, definitely. I got nearly halfway finished (no patterns or straight lines though), and then my dog got very ill and we had to put him down I have had a hard time scrapping specific things since then. Hoping that life is more normal soon and I can get back into the challenges.

So sorry about your dog, Stacy. Maybe when the pain is not so raw you can scrap about him/her. Hugs!

[aurian]

I have 4 layouts left to do on this month's card and struggling to come up with ideas for a couple of them (ie, the 'secret talent' prompt!). Hoping that something comes up shortly, as this is the closest I've been to blackout yet since starting to play several months ago.

I for one enjoyed the 'all about me' style challenges as it's been to easy in recent years to scrap about my family and enjoyed getting to focus on myself a bit more (this post sounds so vain right now!). And as another person said further up in the thread, tweaking each challenge is the way to go and I actually enjoy thinking how I can twist some of the prompts to make them best work for me and my scrapping.

[julifish]

Ladies I greatly appreciate your feedback in what you love and what you don't about the Bingo Challenges. I want you to know that we read this and consider this and other feedback we get each month to try to make the Challenge system more fun. That is also why we hosted a Bingo Challenge idea contest. And yes, a few ideas from that thread will make it on our upcoming cards each month. (So thank you for sharing your awesome ideas!!!)

I did want to say that when we came up with the outline of the Bingo card this year there are few things that we decided should repeat every month so that if you participate in that challenge each month, that at the end of the year you would have a nice little mini album about that topic. So things like:
All About Me, different kind of scrapbook lifts, color challenge, photography challenge, will continue to be on the card each month.

Here's a little hint for you - take the prompt and make it work for you. A selfie challenge doesn't have to be a selfie of you. It can be a selfie of someone else in your family. My niece at 18 months can take a pic of herself on her mom's phone - so I think it gives you lots of options. Also, All About Me could give you a chance to make a book about one of your kids or your spouse - you can interview them. Think outside the box, make it work for you. And yes, we do intentionally challenge you to make a layout that will stretch you a little bit. Sad/Bad days are part of life and you could pick a story that ends up having a bit of a happy ending. Journaling challenges are meant to get you to write more.

The whole point of the Bingo Challenge is to Challenge you and give you ideas and a great way to earn a discount. Yes, we want you to fill your albums with great memories, but we also want to help you stretch and grow as people and scrappers. In a few years you may have a different perspective on life and it's nice to have some pages about yourself to go back to so you can reflect. Your kids will treasure seeing pictures of mom and knowing what she was thinking.

So I invite you to continue to provide us your feedback. You can feel free to PM me ideas on new challenges when you have them. Also know we will have a post on the blog on Thursday this week with some ideas on one of the challenges we thought might throw people for a loop. If you like that blog post and it helps you, please comment and let us know. We'll be happy to do more like that on other challenges. As Babes we are always talking about how we can make the site better for our customers and fellow scrappers - so if you are struggling with an idea for a challenge or need a different way to think about it please post a thread and ask. We're here to motivate you and encourage you to get your pages done and albums completed (and yes, we insist you include a little bit about yourselves too!).

[JillW]

I did not even start a Bingo card for February - it's a busy month for me ... but I'm going to tackle March full-on!!

Thanks for the reminder to think outside of the box Julie!!

[rach3975]

Thanks, Julie! I love the idea of blog posts featuring certain challenges. One thing I miss from way back was when we used to have a thread per challenge that we posted completed LOs in. I used to get a lot of ideas from those, and I'm sure a blog post would be the same.

Most of the time I find it easy to think outside the box for the challenges, but there were some I thought we weren't supposed to, like the All About Me prompts. That helps a lot to know we can do those about anyone, not just ourselves.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

[anelia]

Thanks, Juli for the clarifications, explanations and ideas. I think the blog posts with inspirational layouts is a GREAT idea.

[rdjrneace]

I also want to thank you for providing some ideas (I also thought the "About Me" was suppose to be about me). LOoking forward to March and plan on starting early (at least earlier than what I did in February) so hopefully I can get blackout.

[Valgal]

Juli, thanks for taking the time to respond!