Plee to turn off word verification

There is an anti word verification campaign on the go at the moment & have to say that I'm right behind it especially as I love to blog hop. Also, as I take part in challenges & love to visit other bloggers that have taken part. Sometimes there will be up to 60 blogs a day, now that is an aweful lot when the word verification slows me down!
Word Verification is such a hindrance, but perhaps some people don't realise it is turned on! This said, it's very simple to turn it off & if your on comment moderation, it's not needed anyways, because you can then pick up possible spammers or robots at source....
Here are some comments backing the campaign:
First of all Julie campaigned in April, this is what she had to say on the subject:
Is this necessary?Why do you enable word verifiction?I can't read these. I can't. Call me challenged, stupid, an ass, whatever you want...but I'll be honest. I can't read them. I'm done straining my eyes.Are you afraid of spam? Spam comments? Help your readers. I'm sure everyone would rather you enable moderated comments before word verification. A little spam never hurt anyone, anyway..you can delete it just as easily as the robot sends it to you.
Chris has been continually campaigning and here is what she has to say:
ARGUMENTS AGAINST WORD VERIFICATION
Everyone will have their own view, but in my case, I regard the removal of word verification as a basic courtesy to my visitors who are kind enough to take the time to leave comments. Being aware of their comments through comment moderation, but not hindering them with word verification is the very least I can do to reciprocate their courtesy to me.The problem with word verification is that it takes too long. The characters are very often hard to decipher, and it’s frustrating when you get them wrong and have to re-enter the little suckers!So this campaign is on behalf of busy bloggers. Please spare a thought for the poor bloggers who work so hard at getting round as many blogs as possible to leave sprinkles of blessing and good vibes wherever they go. The terrible proliferation of this awful plague of word verification is a blight on their efforts to make the Land of Blog a cheerier place.I think most people don't realise that they have word verification on their blogs by default, or how easy it is to switch it off, and perhaps not realising how annoying it is for other bloggers. Either that, or they’re under the misapprehension that they will be bombarded with spam messages. This is not the case. I’ve had mine switched off now for three of the four months that I’ve been blogging, and have had two spam comments. The responses I’ve had from other bloggers to my earlier posts on this topic back this up. (You can see the comments in response to my previous post on this subject, HERE.)For safety’s sake, have comment moderation on for sure, but please consider canceling word verification on your blog. Maybe for a trial period, and see how you get on.Unless there are thousands of comments being left, comment moderation shouldn’t be too much of an issue for the blog owner, and other bloggers will also be more inclined to leave comments if they can see that you don’t use word verification.However, each to their own, and if you disagree with me, that’s cool. It's your blog after all said & done...........but if we don't ask we don't get LOL

OK.. rant over. If you have read all the way to the end, thank you for putting up with it, and ~ obviously ~ do what you wish on your blogs, but I had to say something. I love to get around and leave comments, but word verification spoils the experience.Of course, when I get my new job, all this will be academic to me, as I will then have a life, and I won't have time for much blog-hopping!! Not that blog-hoppers need to get a life.. Errr... think I'll stop digging now, before I get into REAL trouble!! lol ;o)

Very eloquently put Chris....I think you may have got away with it LOL

Not your average ducks!

Gill over on UKS started a swap of a different kind, don't ask me how she came up with this idea, but it certainly was fun to take part in. We were all to get hold of 3 rubber ducks and alter them, give them a name and then send them to her to swap around, so I will get 3 different altered ducks back LOL

So looking at the picture from left to right I have created:

Duckling ~ complete with sequin & bead dummy/soother

Punkie Duck ~ complete with feathers
Daily News Duck

They have all been DecoPatched and all have tiny crystals added too!
This is also my take on this weeks Arty Girlz challenge, where we were asked to alter something. Would you believe that today see's the 50th Challenge this week *phew* how time escapes us when we are deep in crafting time!

Always loved this Photo

I have always loved this photograph of my youngest son, it goes back some years though. He was around 6 or 7yrs old when it was taken & he is going on 26yrs old now.......Just where do those years go?? The photo was taken at the bottom of the garden of our family home where all my sons grew up. I remember the day I took the picture, I remember the sweet, kinda mucky smell of the cows, and hearing them snuffling & munching.
My son loved them, I did too but sadly just a couple of years after this picture was taken the old farmer that owned the land died. His son inherited the land & within another year after that he sold it & the builders moved in. All too soon our idllic view was replaced by a housing estate & instead of looking out over the fields & distant hills, there were houses so close to the bottom of our garden, that we could actually see the pattern on the residents curtains!!

I have used left over scraps of MM's 5th Avenue papers, plus Thickers & the Riff Raff chipboard tree from various past ScrapaGoGo kits!

I was prompted to create this LO today, while chatting online with my good friend Sarah, we were both saying we were finding it hard to create anything just lately, so we set ourselves a challenge. We saw the sketch for this LO on the front page of UKS & promised that we would both do the sketch today. Pop over to Sarah's blog & have a look at her version too!

I am also using this LO as my entry for the Arty Girlz Challenge #49 'Summer'

A Couple of Scallywaggs

Here is a LO I did yesterday evening, using papers & elements from past Scrapagogo kits, in this case mainly from August 2008.
The 2 scallywaggs in the photos are my 2 nephews Tom & Ollie when they were toddlers. They were/are real boys and they were a real handful at that age I can tell you. Never a dull moment when they were around and to be honest, although they are now both in their teens, they are both still loads of fun. sadly, I don't get to see them as often as I would love too, because they live in Australia.

Love you guys!!

Just heard & had to share!!

I have had a LO published, but you won't see it in any Scrapbook or Craft magazine. Let me explain! Back last year, out of the blue I had an email out of the blue, from Anam a fellow scrapbooker living in theUSA, She had been looking through forum galleries for LOs that contained images of Tattoo's, for an article that she was putting together for Skin & Ink magazine. She emailed me to ask if she could have permission for her to use my LO, I agreed. Well, I had long forgotten about this, so it was a surprise when a few days ago, I received another email informing me that it was now in the magazine. She kindly photocopied the page for me & you can see that in the photo below. Below is the actual LO that I made back in 2005 of my son Steve on holiday in Cyprus.

Please note though, the magazine has entered my name wrong below the picture!

It names me as Jane Norwood. They got mixed up between my real surname & the name I have in my email address {although they didn't actually get that bit right either LOL} but nevermind, thats my son & it sure is my LO!!!

Get your mits off, it's mine....Blog Candy

Look at this huge pile of goodies.........this is what Dawn is giving away on her blog!

She has set up a guessing game and if you would like a chance to win this then you need to go and take a look for yourself.

Arty Girlz Challenge #48 ~ Shapes

Here is my entry to this weeks Arty Girlz challenge, where we are asked to add shapes to our project. I have created an ATC and have tried something that is quite different for me, but I really enjoyed doing it. What I didn't realise was that the scan would pick up the different layers of colour, including the squiggle! In real life you don't see that ochre squiggle coming through, but I am quite happy that it's there, it looks quite arty I think LOL I have used glossy accents on it too for the windows and the moon, so is quite textural in real life.I will go and add this to my ATC swap lounge now!

Well Done Girls, I'm proud of you all...

Back last year I started a 52 week marathon of a challenge {Loosely based on the Elsie Flannigan 52 week challenge} & last week the 3 contenders that were still left in it, completed thier final challenge!

These 3 ladies are in my eyes are completely amazing for more than one reason, why? well firstly, they were cardmakers & had never considered Scrapbooking before, & when I posted about the challenge, they did not even know what a Scrapbook Layout was. However, they were willing to give it a try!
Secondly, they never missed a deadline {what I would give for half of thier stamina}. Crumbs, I even had trouble some weeks keeping up with posting the next challenge on time !!!

I would like to publicly applaud & congratulate to Tracey {doesn't blog} Carolann & Sandie members of Auntys Forum I have watched you all grow in confidence over the 52 weeks & every week your LOs & minibooks just went from strength to strength........you are all brilliant!

Tracey won 1st place because she submitting challenges from challenge #1

Carolann & Sandie joined the forum part way through the challenges, but they caught up immediately & then didn't miss a deadline from their 1st submission!

Goody parcels will be in the post this week Girls, you have all earned them!!

Another page for Murphys album

Again I have used my August kit, but this time I have taken the stamp and created my own background to the cardstock and coloured it in using my Uni Signo pen. I really can't recommend these pens enough, they are fab to use!

There is hidden journaling on the tag behind the bottom photo, the one with Murphy and little Ozzie in it.

My August Designs

The August Scrapagogo kit was so cute and really fun to work with, here are a few more cards that I made using the kit! The background flowers on the middle card, I created using the Cateyes chalk inks and a finger dauber directly on to the card. This works equally well as a background technique on a scrapbook page, if you need to make your own paper!