Sprite Stitch Board!

While I have this in my head (and believe me, there's a very limited amount of space in there) I wanted to share my plan for a challenge calendar. Setting regular times will make it easier to plan and setup, and I hope help participating members to plan their time (particularly for the swaps).
Here's what I was thinking:

JAN-FEB - extended challenge
MAR - small challenge
APR-MAY-JUN - swap
JUL - small challenge
AUG - small challenge
SEPT-OCT - mini swap
NOV - small challenge
DEC - small challenge

By extended I mean like the one that's on now (one that's a bit longer so it can be more complicated) and by small I mean something relatively simple like our usual short challenges.
I did want to have the big swap earlier in the year but there's a lot of activity already with the first challenge and the start up of the charity quilt project, so I figured later might be better. But it can't be any later than that, or it will be too close to the mini-swap.
Also, and I need johloh's approval for this, I was thinking about the possibility of one or more challenges having some kind of prize as well as the winner's badge.

Opinions and ideas all welcome

I know on other craft blogs I've been on, their larger swaps (like the april-june one) happen separate to challenges. Not everyone is keen on doing a big swap, and three months without another challenge for other people is a bit much... Perhaps another small challenge in May, or prehaps an extended challenge over all three months, so both the swappers, and non-swappers can enter?

What type of thing were you thinking of when you say "prize"?
I know johloh threw around the idea of giving away sprite stitch merchandise once, but he were waylaid with making the font, etc...

Lord Libidan wrote:I know on other craft blogs I've been on, their larger swaps (like the april-june one) happen separate to challenges. Not everyone is keen on doing a big swap, and three months without another challenge for other people is a bit much... Perhaps another small challenge in May, or prehaps an extended challenge over all three months, so both the swappers, and non-swappers can enter?

I had wondered about doing this, actually. It does tend to be the same bunch of people in most of the challenges, so I'm not sure if there'd be many doing the challenge instead of the swap. But if there's enough interest, then we can make that happen as well!

Lord Libidan wrote:What type of thing were you thinking of when you say "prize"?
I know johloh threw around the idea of giving away sprite stitch merchandise once, but he were waylaid with making the font, etc...

Kinda stuck there, if I'm honest. Sprite Stitch merchandise would seem like the obvious choice, but if there was such merchandise a lot of us would buy it anyway. And there's the thing of getting that all made up etc.
I do think it might attract more people to the challenges if there was something to win other than the badge and kudos, and everyone likes prizes, right?

Or...or...there could be an annual competition (for Sprite Stitch's birthday or something!) where there was a little bunch of custom/special Sprite Stitch stuff for the winner(s)?

Well it all costs money, so we need to find out from johloh if there is any budget for it...
I think you're right about more people being brought if we had prizes. I think if we did it on the blog we might be able to get people who aren't on the forums to join in too, that might get more people...
Or just general giveaways...

Yeah I agree, the blog might be the best place for something like that.

Back to the challenges, I've added the ideas of challenges parallel to the swaps (assuming there is enough interest for that, of course).

JAN-FEB - extended challenge
MAR - small challenge
APR-MAY-JUN - swap and challenge(s)
JUL - small challenge
AUG - small challenge
SEPT-OCT - mini swap and challenge(s)
NOV - small challenge
DEC - small challenge

Even though I would probably do a swap over a challenge, I do agree that it might be a good idea to continue the challenges during the swap. Also, I think it might be good to throw in one more extended challenge somewhere in there. I like the idea of doing more challenges like the one we're doing now.

Also I like the idea of physical prizes, like I'm sure most people will, and maybe instead of sprite stitch merchandise, the prizes could be some type of stitching equipment or a stitching kit or something else along those lines. Maybe certain challenges could focus on a certain craft, like perlers for instance, and the prize could then be related to that craft, like new peg boards or something else perler related.

I think its a good idea to continue the challenges during the swaps as well. I think it'll be fun and it means that anyone who joins the forum too late to join in or wasn't able to participate in the swap for other reasons can have something to do during it. And since our swap items are supposed to be a surprise then it means we can do other projects too and still have stuff to show off during the swap time. If that makes any sense.

Sorry Philpepe but I don't like the idea of having craft designated challenges. I like the way the challenges are now with the broad topic that is open for interpretation and whatever craft you want to enter be it stitches, beads, knitting, etc. I think people would feel left out if we did craft specific challenges.

If we're trying to get more people involved in challenges then maybe we should mention them more on the blog as well as the sprite stitch facebook page.

As far as prizes, I think that is an interesting idea. I'd say something sprite stitch related would be cool because it works for people from any craft related area and helps promote the name of sprite stitch. But the issue would be not only the price for physical prizes but also the price of shipping which can be a lot.

Philpepe wrote:Maybe certain challenges could focus on a certain craft, like perlers for instance, and the prize could then be related to that craft, like new peg boards or something else perler related.

moon_noodles wrote:Sorry Philpepe but I don't like the idea of having craft designated challenges. I like the way the challenges are now with the broad topic that is open for interpretation and whatever craft you want to enter be it stitches, beads, knitting, etc. I think people would feel left out if we did craft specific challenges.

I would normally agree with moon_noodles in that I'm not too keen on craft-specific challenges. However, a thought just occurred to me - it would be possible to do categories in a challenge, like best stitch, best perler, etc. But that does start to get a little complicated!
And we don't really get enough of other crafts to make that viable at the minute, but it may be something we can look at in the future.

For prizes, I have 2 thoughts.

1. Doing a sponsorship give away. For example, an etsy shop could donate an item for the prize if we post pictures, list their website, and maybe put it on the blog.

2. To make it cheaper if the prize needs to be purchased, then we could do an end of the year prize. Enter all the monthly challenge winners and have a vote for the best, or drawing, etc.

And those are my two-cents

What about having some stitch-a-longs during the swaps, instead of having challenges?

I joined after the Final Fantasy stitch-a-long and am sorry I missed it.