Andrea's Review	Melanie's Review	Lynn Anne's Review	Catherine's Review	Eli's Review

Review by Andrea

The thought of a scrapbook game complete with a board and cards sounded like a great idea to me! I was interested to show it to my friends and to actually play the game with them. After I told them that I needed their assistance with it, they were excited to play also!

We read the instructions out loud so that everyone could get the meaning at the same time. Our first confusion was with the cards. We were thinking along the lines of Monopoly with 2 separate decks and were wondering why all the cards for this game were the same color. We then realized they all needed to be together in one stack - DUH!

The game started and we instantly went back to the instructions. We completely understood the turn sequence: draw one card and play one card, then what? Do we need to discard? Can the play card be the discard? We tried the first game with not doing a discard unless the card we played said to discard. We ended up with a lot of cards in our hands and having to turn what few cards we discarded back into the draw pile. The game also lasted quite a long time!

We played another round with discarding one card every turn. That game went faster, but didn't quite feel like that was the way the game was supposed to be played. The third time through was when we counted playing a card as a discard and following the complete directions on the cards without adding a discard at the end. We thought this was the best game overall.

The game is hilarious!! We all really enjoyed reading the cards and following the instructions to see who would get extra cards or "stick it" to the other players! All the cards mimic current scrapbooking trends like swaps, getting published and winning layout contests online. The card content is really well done.

Other than fixing some small spelling errors on the cards and making the directions a little clearer, I really can't think of anything that I would change. A brighter card color would make it more visually appealing I think, but the printing and graphics work just fine. The pricing is right and would actually be a great gift for a Secret Pal or fellow scrapbooker.

At the end of the last game, one of my friends commented "we're playing again tomorrow night right?". I think that sums it up right there!

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Review by Melanie

Oh, Scrap! The Card Game Dedicated to Scrapbookers

Alleged Enterprises offers Oh, Scrap! - the first card game dedicated to scrapbookers. It consists of 77 cards and 6 gameboard packaged in a 6 1/2 x 9 1/2 envelope. The cards have various scrapbook elements such as Title, Paper, Embellishment, etc.. which you actually place on your gameboard. Each element has a value on the card - for example, a fabulous scrapbook page title will have the highest number or points; a "bad" photo will have the lowest number of points. The gameboard comes in two separate pieces (for easier packaging). You may also print a one-piece gameboard from their website given in the instructions. The gameboard has a spot for each of the page elements on it. The goal is to complete your gameboard - or layout with the highest points. The other cards that are in the deck are cards that allow you to play extra cards or draw extra cards. And then there are cards that represent real-life obstacles we encounter in scrapbooking - spilled drinks, unexpected phone calls, missing supplies and other distractions. All of these elements will surface during the course of the game.

I played Oh, Scrap! at my local scrapbook store during a crop. The players consisted of 3 adults and one pre-teen (almost 13). I read the directions a few times before the crop so I could direct the game. The instructions started out pretty clear, but as we played, we would ask "What do we do here??" and we would try to find the answer in the instructions. For example, if the cards are played face down on your gameboard, and you get a card that tells you to remove something from your gameboard, some of the players "looked" at the face down cards which I thought was against the rules, but actually there was no rule for that. Another player received a card that said "place this card next to your gameboard", but we weren't sure if we were supposed to do that to all the "Croppin' In Style" cards or just that one. So....despite the questions we had, we proceeded to complete the game.

The adults I played with, including myself, would have liked a bit more in the instructions. We were also getting bored and went through the cards pretty quick and had to re-shuffle, thus seeing the same cards again. Some of the "events" on the cards had to do with online message boards and getting published, some were of other events, all funny and creative. The younger scrapper who played with us loved the game. She got tickled while reading one of the cards and laughed so hard that I thought she was going to cry. I think this would be a good game for a group of pre-teens or teenagers that scrapbook and just want to have some fun while they aren't working on their pages. I can see how this game could be played with your scrapbook friends at a retreat or a regular get-together - but it would need to be during a time when everyone isn't in the middle of cropping. The hardest part for me was to pull myself away from scrapbooking to "play". I provided a small prize to the winner and a small "boobie" prize to the one with the lowest score. For scrapbookers that get together on a regular basis, I can see how this could be the opening event to a night of scrapbooking and to make it even more fun, they can offer nice prizes to the winner, much like a group of pokeno players do. Although it was fun to play a scrapbook related game, I don't know if I would want to play this game again. As someone who grew up on card games and board games, this one didn't hold my interest for long and I struggled to want to complete the game. Oh, Scrap! retails at $10.00.

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Review by Lynn Anne

As you can surely tell from its name, the "Oh, SCRAP!" card game, produced by Alleged Enterprises, treats our beloved craft in a lovingly irreverent manner. The game, recommended for a group of 3-6, is played with a hand of cards and a ‘board’ which represents a scrapbook layout. The goal is to build a better layout than your competitors, using cards that represent scrapbook page elements. But all sorts of pitfalls pop up along the way ­ isn’t that the scrapping life? - and the page you think you’re putting together may not be the one you end up with after all.

"Oh, SCRAP!" has the look and feel of a game that was brainstormed by a group of friends as they sat around cropping together, then produced by the same group after realizing they’d hit upon a neat idea. It comes in a compact white paper mailing envelope printed with an introduction to the game (in the form of a scrapbook page, of course!). Inside, four game boards (each in two pieces; directions instruct the players to either tape the halves together, or print out a one-piece board from their company website) and 77 playing cards have been printed on regular old cardstock, and the instructions on a folded piece of 8-1/2x11 paper. This game lacks the production quality of something by Milton Bradley, but it was obviously put together with love and a great sense of humor. The disclaimer on the instructions sheet reads: "Note: This game and its contents are neither archival safe, acid-free, nor lignin-free"…and is punctuated by a smiley face!

Element cards represent each basic part of a scrapbook layout: title, paper, embellishment, journaling, and photo. Each includes a number rating, 1 point being the lowest (and most humorous!) and 5 being the best. For the most part, I agreed with the numeric rankings involved, though personally I would have given a photo of the family dog taken by my three year old (1 point) higher than a blurry photo of the bottom half of Aunt Ethel (2 points)! Croppin’ in Style cards are generally good things, such as winning contests or receiving kits in the mail, that give the player bonuses like extra cards or extra plays. Cropper Stopper cards represent the inconveniences hit along the way, and might lead to a losing a turn or a card. Some of these are pretty ingenious - being late to the crop because the sheer weight of your scrapping supplies in the trunk made you lose gas mileage and have to stop for more gas along the way? I had to laugh out loud at some of these! Random Event cards are just odd happenings that move things around a bit - traded cards and the like.

This is a fast-paced game, as described by the company, and it’s got a bit of a twist to it as well. Not only do you put element cards on your own layout board (hopefully with high point values to them), but you are also allowed to play your cards onto any other player’s board (presumably the low value cards).

I played this game with a small group, but it’s recommended for up to six players ­ and I can’t wait to try it with a bigger group at a weekend crop I’m attending in August. I have a feeling this game will be ‘the more the merrier’ due to the inherent chaos involved! We found the instructions to be simple, though we were left without instructions for what to do if someone had no playable cards one turn - discard a card, or just keep the new card in hand? Having others decide which cards left your hand if you had to discard, and having everyone placing cards on everyone else’s boards, gave a crazy randomness to the whole process that led to a little fun frustration and lots of laughs. But our favorite part of this game was how completely tuned in to the art and sport of scrapping this game’s creators are! This game references contests, message boards, swaps, and even trendy elements, and there wasn’t one of us who couldn’t identify with the majority of the ‘Cropper Stoppers’. This game will resonate best with scrapbookers who are involved online, since the bits about swaps, being banned from message boards and getting published wouldn’t mean much to more casual scrapbookers. But anyone who’s gone through the process of putting together even a few layouts will appreciate the humor in here.

I should make this note for male scrapbookers who will play this game: the creators definitely had the female scrapping population in mind when putting this together. My husband wasn’t incredibly amused to find out that he had a husband during the course of the game, when the ‘husbandus interruptus’ card was played on him. (I do admit, however, that he was the ONLY player who didn’t find that to be pretty darned funny in and of itself!)

Overall, this is a fun, simple game to play with scrapbooking friends and crop companions. The tongue-in-cheek humor will get everyone smiling, and the random nature of much of the ‘page creation’ process will keep everyone their toes. It runs through quickly, so that it can be used as a quick game break at a crop or in between classes, before getting back to the more serious business of getting those photos scrapped! I also noticed that at the tail end of the instructions sheet, the game authors solicit ideas for new cards. I hope that means that an expansion deck is in order, because the best part of this game is the wacky sense of humor found in the cards themselves, and I’d love to see what this team comes up with next. Recommended!

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Review by Catherine

Oh, SCRAP! Is an easy, fast-paced card game dedicated to scrapbooking. Not long before hearing about doing the review for "Oh, SCRAP!", I saw this game on-line. I was intrigued by the theme of the game, of course. So, when I heard we would be reviewing the game, I was very excited! There are so few products out there, besides supplies, that are dedicated solely to scrapbooking.

When I received my packet, I immediately tore into the game. The story on the front of the package was too funny to be kept to myself. I let my husband read it, but he didn’t “get it”. I realized that this game was definitely only to be played with a group of scrappers. Inside the package is a set of six gameboards, 77 cards, and the “Oh, SCRAP!” directions. Upon reading through the directions, I was a little confused, but I decided to play anyway.

I teach an "All About Me" Album class at my local scrapbook store. There are two different groups in the class, meeting on different nights, so I decided to try the game with the smallest group. There were a few people missing on this night, so we only had four for the game. After playing, I was glad there weren’t more. Below, are a couple of pictures of us playing the game in the classroom of The Scrappin’ Connection.

Playing "Oh, SCRAP!" 1:

Playing "Oh, SCRAP!" 2:

During the game, there were a few confusing points, but we worked through them. One suggestion that I received from the players was that the direction cards with several steps of instructions should be removed. For example, on card says “… Draw the top 5 cards from the deck and play one immediately. You may keep one additional card in your hand if you choose. Discard the remaining cards.” This type of wordy instructions became confusing for the group. Also, no explanation is given of what to do once you have filled your board. Does that person continue playing? What does one do if they cannot play any cards in their hand? These are questions that we came up with while playing our game. We, being good scrappers, of course- improvised!

There were several hilarious points in our game. When everyone had to get up and move to different cards, there were some screams of outrage, and some giggles of glee! Everyone also extremely enjoyed the final product of reading our “scrap pages” aloud. Playing this game was a wonderful, stress-relieving exercise for our group, and actually got us thinking in different ways about things. One more suggestion, as we neared the end of our game, was that the game should include more “element” cards, especially if played with a larger group. It became difficult for the final couple of people to fill up their boards. All in all, the game was extremely entertaining and a great deal of fun! I can’t wait to play it again with a different group of scrappers.

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Review by Eli

I checked out the Oh, Scrap! game online after I was assigned this review. I was intrigued, but at the time I couldn’t understand how we could possibly finish a page in 30 minutes.

When I got the game envelope, I chuckled as I read the cover that looks like a scrapbooking page. The journaling highlights a crop night of mishap. I’m sure none of us can relate. Each of us has all the time in the world to scrapbook with no interruptions. The journaling also hinted at the history of how the game came about. I opened up the game envelope and pulled out an instruction booklet, game cards and game boards for six people.

I read through the directions and realized that we would not be creating an ACTUAL page but using our cards to add elements to of a “pretend page.” The cards are divided into page elements, crop bonuses and challenges. I was excited to get together with some girlfriends to give it a whirl. I called several scrapbooking stay-at-home moms and one said, “Since my daughter naps in the afternoon, can we play at my house?” So we did. In the end, only three of us could play but it was enough as the game is set for three to six players.

When I arrived at Liz’s house, I could see that we were living the challenge of the game…Liz’s daughter, who usually naps, was wide awake playing away. Laura’s daughter, nine months old, was very interested in what we were doing and after only three minutes of introducing the game to the players, had a card soaking wet in her mouth. Too funny. I think the game authors need to add the card, “Your toddler eats one of your element cards, lose a turn,” to the deck.

Laura’s 9 month old daughter loves this game.

Since the little girls wanted to be near their toys, we stayed there to play. I read the rules and got ready to deal.

Pick a card, any card. Eli gets ready to deal.

The only trouble we had with the game was a bit of confusion about whether to play a card, read a card out loud or give a card away. We understood the element cards…play one on yourself or play one on an opponent, but we referred back to the rules several times during the first few rounds for help with the other cards. Check out how it went.

Laura reads a card before playing it on an opponent.

Liz chooses a card to play.

Eli tells the story of her page.

Conclusion: I have to laugh because as we played this we diverted toddlers, answered the phone, removed cards from soggy mouths…just like the game cards say. This game is a hoot. It spoofs many of the circumstances that come about during crops or in the course of scrapbooking at home. I think it offers the perfect break during a crop. It takes about a half an hour to play, and it seriously made us all laugh. I might recommend the company laminate the cards, slowing down the “soggy factor” in a toddler’s mouth.

I do recommend this product for scrapbookers. It’s fun, creative and not expensive. Look for it online for $10 plus shipping. Check the link below the reviews.

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