My ARTistic Life

Cuteness & Inspiration Ahoy!

Art Challenge of the Week: Brighten Up an Uplifting Quote!
(continues for another week, yay!)

I'm going to give you another week to play in this fun art challenge. Art up an uplifting quote that you enjoy. We've received several gorgeous entries so far. It's so inspiring, I love seeing your favorite quotes brought to life! Here is one by Cheryl Carraway:

It says "Renew your passions daily." Isn't this piece amazing?! There is a spin dial in the middle that can point to: paint, write, sing, create, stamp, play...WOWW, LOVE this! I spy our Art Blast Playing Cards around the edges along with our Hats in Bloom, Butterfly Butterfly, Spoil Me chick and more. Just gorgeous!!! Cheryl is one of the winners for this art challenge! I will pick three more winners next week. : )

How to play in this art challenge: Art up a favorite, uplifting quote. Then scan and post it to your blog, flickr account or website. Next, click on "comment" at the bottom of this post and leave a note with a link to your art challenge post so I know where to see it online. In addition, please link back to my blog. 

If you don't have a website or blog or anything, please post your artwork for this challenge to our YahooGroup: Photos: Helga's Blog: Weekly Art Challenge.

Deadline: Tuesday morning, June 30, 2009.

Prize: My favorites will receive a fun goodie bags with a selection of our new products that we'll be introducing next week. I will announce the winner on Wed, July 1.

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ARTchix Specials of the Week: Sassy Style & Spring Blossom
(continues for another week, yay!)

Great news! You have another week to snap up these awesome specials at half price: our Spring Blossom transparency and Sassy Style collage sheet! Here are two gorgeous ATCs made using these great sheets. On the left, Cindy McMath put the Spring Blossom transparency on top of our Spoil Me chick. Looks awesome! And on the right, Sara Udstuen made this awesome ATC with the Sassy Style collage sheet. Love them!

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Weekly Dose of Cuteness: More Fuzzy Love!

James and I were lazy one night and left our tv-watching blankets on the floor. Look what we discovered the next day! Bruno and Stella sleeping on them. Too cute!

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Inspiration in My Email Box

Wow, look what I received recently....

Gena Boone-Curtis made this spectacular piece after being inspired by our recent art challenge to make a grid of art! Isn't it amazing?!! I'm so in awe of it! I'm going to send Gena a Chixies By the Sea Collection. : )

I spy so many great ARTchix images in this piece: Seaside Cuties, Classic Nudes, Mermaid Dreams, Royal Post and Fairy Dreams...just to name a few. : )
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Speaking of the Chixies By the Sea Collection....look at this awesome little book that Joy Spicer made using the images from this collection. It's so happy and colorful!!

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Another happy and colorful piece...check out this delightful collage by Pam Barnes! It features our Hats in Bloom gal coming out of a pot, so cute! Love the Butterfly Charm in her hat! And the birdies from Sweet Tweet look great here. You can also find our Gold Lace Borders, Gold Small Renaissance Borders and Gold Small Flower Borders around the edges. Fabulous!

See you next week! I'll be introducing our new Chixies Art Blast Collection and lots more!

New Quote Challenge + Specials

Art Challenge of the Week: Brighten Up an Uplifting Quote!

For this week, art up an uplifting quote that you enjoy.

I read this great quote in a magazine and wanted to do something special with it. Right now, my big goal is to lose weight so having this by my desk helps keep me motivated. One morning, I got up early and just wrote out the quote in thick markers. Then I dug out my scrap bin and just glued down random scraps of paper and doodled a bit with watercolor crayons and pens. This took me about 20 minutes to do. Try it, it's so much fun!

How to play in this art challenge: Art up a favorite, uplifting quote. Then scan and post it to your blog, flickr account or website. Next, click on "comment" at the bottom of this post and leave a note with a link to your art challenge post so I know where to see it online. In addition, please link back to my blog. 

If you don't have a website or blog or anything, please post your artwork for this challenge to our YahooGroup: Photos: Helga's Blog: Weekly Art Challenge.

Deadline: Tuesday morning, June 23, 2009.

Prize: My favorite will receive a fun goodie bag with a selection of our new products that we'll be introducing next week. I will announce the winner on Wed, June 24.

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ARTchix Specials of the Week: Sassy Style & Spring Blossom

These two sheets were used in the artwork made by our talented swap artists below. I was so inspired by how they really brought them to life! Wowza! Now you can play with them too! Get these gorgeous sheets for half price this week only! Follow this special link to purchase them.

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ARTchix Bonus Gift of the Week: Fab Stickers by Our Swap Winner - Norma Skoglund

For this week, get these awesome stickers featuring gorgeous art by our swap winner: Norma Skoglund! Simply type "SPOIL ME" in the comments section of your order and we will include this fabulous bonus gift with your order.

Or order one of our blog specials of the week and we will automatically include this bonus gift. Hooray!

Cuteness + Oodles of winners!

Weekly Dose of Cuteness: MoMo loves ARTchix swaps!

Whenever I'm picking the winners of our swaps, MoMo loves it! It means that I bring out her favorite bin to sleep in. Every time I turn around, she's in this bin and I have to keep shooing her out. It's funny!
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Winners of our Art Blast ATC Swap!

We had 55 wonderful artists participate in our Art Blast ATC swap. Everyone made gorgeous ATCs inspired by our Art Blast Playing Cards. Oooh, I had such a hard time picking the winners but in the end, I picked...

NORMA SKOGLUND! Winner! (Norma wins a $100 shopping spree on our website. Hooray!)

Fave ARTchix Product at the moment: I love "all things ARTchix."

Comments: Your ART Blast cards are wonderful inspiration. Loved using the birds as a focal point. So I started with those and a pile of images cut from your collage sheets and a pile of transparencies.   I liked the backgrounds with the birds and found that if I cut out the focal point, I could slip other images behind them to add layers. I also used copic markers to add some color to the birds.

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JOAN LAWRENCE! Honorable Mention.

Fave ARTchix Product at the moment: the new white sheet with the baby doll head

Comments: I am always challenged with your contests but when you plant the seed of the project and what sheet or items to use; it does help with creating new artwork. I used some old vintage wallpaper I had gotten from ebay and I loved the results with your transparencies.

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FRIEDA OXENHAM! Honorable mention.

Fave ARTchix Product at the moment: definitely the transparency sheets

Comments: I used these in making the Art Blast cards and what I really adore about Artchix transparencies is that they are transparent enough to be able to see the background, while at the same time giving a clear outline of the image on the transparency. I love being able to build up layers on my cards in this way.
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SABINE BUSCH! Honorable mention.

Fave ARTchix Product at the moment: I love all your beautiful collage sheets. My favourites are all sheets with birds, mermaids and art dolls.

Comments: I had a fun day with my sister when we made our Art Blast ATCs together.
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CHRISTY LAUDIG! Honorable mention.

Fave ARTchix Product at the moment:  I'm a real "eye" person.  As soon as I see a person, I look at their eyes, and look into their soul.  You can tell so much from someone's eyes.  So, my favorite product right now is..."The Eyes Have It" Collage Sheet.

Comments: I was a little intimidated by the Art Blast Swap and found the best thing for me to do was to "think" about what I was going to create.  I write a list of what the requirements are for the Swap...and then I pour over each of the collage sheets that we can pick from.  Then I lay out 6 blank ATC's and start picking a main image that I want to work with.  After that, I work on the background, and start adding other bits and pieces until I feel balanced.  I must admit, after I started putting them together, I felt more relaxed and enjoyed the whole process so much, I created another six.

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JENNIFER ROGERS-DANIELS! Honorable mention.

Fave ARTchix Product at the moment: Dreamboxes, all the German scrap, and the new sticker collections!

Comments: I really had fun making the ART blast ATCs. It was a challenge to me to combine the retro photo images with the nature elements.  Furthermore, it was a very limited color pallet for me to work with.  I decided to make tags that could be moved so you get more than one viewpoint when looking at these ATCs.

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LYNN MCMILLAN! Honorable Mention.

Fave ARTchix Product at the moment: That's a tough one; there are so many! :) I think the irridescent white mini border has to take the prize, though. It's cool as it is, and it's great to add a hint of color to and match whatever I'm working on.

Comments: I had a lot of fun making the Art Blast ATCs. I had an idea before I started, but it evolved as I went and the cards ended up looking almost completely different from my original idea. That's what I like about ARTchix swaps and challenges: I never know where the process will take me, but I have a great time on the way!

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PATTI SCHMID! Honorable mention.

Fave ARTchix Product at the moment: German scrap -- any color I can get.

Comments: The swap was quite a challenge for me.  Since I had a difficult time approaching the project, I just kept looking at the challenge cards and primarily focusing on the color scheme.  I had the Sassy Style collage sheet (have always wanted to use it); and then began building from there.  I think the black, red and white combination is really quite sophisticated.  Yet the do-dads made it work.  Little red accents pulled the whole thing together.

We will be introducing the amazing, gorgeous collection that was created from the artwork in this swap next Wednesday! Stay tuned for next Wednesday!

Also, good news, this swap will be mailed to all players by the end of this week or early next week. : )

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Winners of Last Week's Art Challenge: Make a Grid of Art!

We had 9 talented artists play in this fun art challenge. All of the grids of art were so cool that I had to pick 3 winners....

CYNTHIA FRENETTE! Love this, it's spectacular!

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LINDA FREEMAN! Love how she used a boggle game as the base for her grid. Genius!

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LENNA ANDREWS! Oh, this piece is so happy and colorful, it makes my heart sing!

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These 3 fabulous winners will receive:

The Chixies By the Sea Collage Sheet Collection! Hooray! : )

Grid Art Challenge + Specials

Art Challenge of the Week: Make a Grid of Art!

For this week, make a grid of art! It's so much fun! Here is my inspiration behind this challenge...

The other day, I was flipping through Somerset Studio's Gallery Summer 2009 Issue. I came across this wall art grid by Shari Ulman. I love it! It made me think about a piece of artwork that I have hanging in my bedroom...

I see this print every morning by Jan Williams when I wake up. No wonder I love grids so much! lol. In any case, seeing these 2 pieces above helped me decide what I wanted to do with my receipts and tickets from my trip...

Here are the business cards, receipts, tickets and ephemera that I collected in Amsterdam. (Note: I have 4 more bags of receipts for the other cities that I visited...lots more to do, lol!) I made a simple blue watercolor wash on watercolor paper for the background. Then I started cutting and ripping up my receipts, etc. I kept them all approx. business card size so that it would be nice and easy. And I cut up the receipts a bit so that you can see what we ate for dinner, etc. So, essentially, it's a visual travel journal of our trip. Pretty cool. They felt a little naked so I added some images from our When Dreams Take Flight collage sheet...and a few snippets from our Tell Me a Story collage sheet. For example, I added "beautiful dress" to the business card where I bought a gorgeous dress from. It still feels like it needs something. Hmmm...will let it percolate for a bit.

In the meantime, your challenge for this week is to make a grid of art! You can make the items in your grid any size you'd like but make sure they're all approx. the same size. They can be squares, circles or rectangles...your choice.

How to play in this art challenge: Make a grid of art. Then scan and post it to your blog, flickr account or website. Next, click on "comment" at the bottom of this post and leave a note with a link to your art challenge post so I know where to see it online. In addition, please link back to my blog. 

If you don't have a website or blog or anything, please post your artwork for this challenge to our YahooGroup: Photos: Helga's Blog: Weekly Art Challenge.

Deadline: Tuesday morning, June 16, 2009.

Prize: My favorite will receive a fun goodie bag. I will announce the winner on Wed, June 17.

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ARTchix Special of the Week: When Dreams Take Flight Collage Sheet

I love this sheet that my Mom designed! I enjoyed using it to spice up my grid collage above. Get this gorgeous sheet for half price this week only! Follow this special link to purchase it.

Order it today and get our free bonus gift: pretty papers from Paris!

Also, order it and play in our fun upcoming swap: Blue MOO Cards!

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I couldn't resist sharing this gorgeous altered house by my aunt, Dianna Rapp! She used an image from our special sheet above along with our E is for Egg sheet and our Lucky Bird Buttons. Love it!

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ARTchix Bonus Gift of the Week: Beautiful Papers from Paris!

For this week, get these lovely pieces of wrapping paper that I bought in Paris (cute birds in birdcages, cool pen nibs and beautiful palm trees)! Simply type "SPOIL ME" in the comments section of your order and we will include this gorgeous bonus gift with your order.

Or order our blog special above and we will automatically include this bonus gift. Hooray!

Note: Offer good while supplies last (we have 12 in stock!). Each piece of wrapping paper is approx. 4.5" x 5.5".

Cuteness + Published Chix + Winner

Weekly Dose of Cuteness: Fuzzy Love

Stella and Bruno are quite the fuzzy pair. They like to hang out together, it's so cute!

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Lots o' Published Chix, Hooray!

Did you know that you get 3 free ARTchix sheets of your choice when you are published with ARTchix products and mention us as a source? Check out some of the latest magnificent pieces of ARTchix art that were recently published....

Lenna Andrews' gorgeous mini quilt was published in Sew Somerset! You'll find an Mini Chix in the lower left. Awesome!
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Laura Haviland was published in Somerset Studio's Gallery - Summer 2009! Love her paper dolls with our fun Hat and Wonderful Wings.

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Jackie McColl and I were also published in Somerset Studio's Gallery Summer 2009. Yay! Jackie's house collage at the top includes a diva from our Flirt collage sheet along with our Black Lace Borders. And her cool piece on the right and my collage on the left feature our Sassy Style collage sheet and transparency sheet along with Tiny Dot Borders in black and white. Jackie's also includes a cute Black Crown.

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Rima St. John's cool book was published in Altered Arts' Summer 2009 Issue. You can find our Circle Pix images on tags along the cover.

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Check it out! Our butterfly girl is on the cover of Lisa Kettell's fabulous new book: Altered Art Circus!

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Winner of Last Week's Art Challenge: Make a Background out of Receipts & Ephemera!

We had 4 wonderful entries for this challenge. Oohh, it was a hard choice but in the end, I picked....

Cindy McMath! Cindy made a whole bunch of cool collages and she shows us how she started with a background of receipts and then painted over them on her blog. Great visuals! Cindy wins:

This fun goodie bag with gorgeous papers and velvet flowers that I bought in Paris and Amsterdam. Enjoy Cindy! : )

I'm Back with a New Art Challenge + ARTchix Specials

Guess what?! I'm Back!

Isn't this postcard by Adolie Day fantastic?!!! It says "Our Chick Has Arrived!" Love it!

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Weekly Art Challenge: Make a Background out of Receipts & Ephemera!

When I was in Paris, I bought this beautiful card. If you look closely, this talented artist (Sophie Adde), made a background out of newsprint and ephemera. Then she painted on top of it with acrylic paints. I think it's absolutely gorgeous and so inspiring!

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It brought to mind a painting that I did after James and I got married. This is a huge canvas that hangs in our dining area. First, I painted the background with ochre acrylic paint. Then I randomly glued on receipts from our honeymoon and misc. papers from our wedding. Next, I got out a big paintbrush and painted the heart on top of all of the papers and added the green background, etc. I also used a toothbrush to flick on paint and I put the paint on heavy in some places so that it would drip down. I really enjoyed painting this and it's such a special memento of our wedding day and honeymoon.

Now I've collected and saved the receipts and misc. papers from our recent trip to Europe. And I'm thinking about what I should do with them. I haven't decided exactly yet but I'm thinking something like this would be fun. Will be sure to show you when I do. : )

In the meantime, your art challenge for this week is to collect receipts and misc. papers from your week and then use them in a background for a collage of any size you'd like. You can paint over them or keep them as is, your choice. I just think it will be fun to play with receipts in our backgrounds. : )

How to play in this art challenge: Make a collage of any size that includes receipts and/ or pieces of ephemera in the background. Then scan and post it to your blog, flickr account or website. Next, click on "comment" at the bottom of this post and leave a note with a link to your art challenge post so I know where to see it online. In addition, please link back to my blog. 

If you don't have a website or blog or anything, please post your artwork for this challenge to our YahooGroup: Photos: Helga's Blog: Weekly Art Challenge.

Deadline: Tuesday morning, June 9, 2009.

Prize: My favorite will receive some fun goodies from my trip. I will announce the winner on Wed, June 10.

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ARTchix Bonus Gift of the Week: Bird Stickers!

I got this gorgeous old book in Amsterdam and it's filled with incredible bird illustrations! Yay!

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I turned one of the beautiful illustrations from this book into these fabulous bird stickers. For this week, type "spoil me" in the comments section of your order and we will include these 3 awesome sheets of stickers.

Or order our blog special below and we will automatically include this bonus gift. Hooray!

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ARTchix Special of the Week: "Garden" Collage Sheet Collection

When I got home, I was delighted to see that so many flowers in my garden are in bloom! Hooray! It made me think about this lovely collection of garden images. Get this gorgeous collection for half price this week only! Follow this special link to purchase it.

Order it today and get our free bonus gift: beautiful bird stickers!

Weekly Dose of Cuteness + European Inspiration Galore!

Weekly Dose of Cuteness: I heart Momo

My little Uma has been an absolute treasure since we've gotten back from our trip. I think she really missed us. Her new nickname is Momo. Hence, I heart Momo. : )

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European Inspiration Galore!

As you know, I recently went to Amsterdam, Spain (Madrid and Barcelona) and France (Montpellier and Paris). What a trip! James and I had an amazing time! Only negative thing was how expensive everything was. It was rather shocking at times. But that's okay, we just focused on enjoying the experience, I bought lots of postcards and we took lots of photos. : )

First stop: AMSTERDAM!

Amsterdam had gorgeous architecture (see the incredible rooflines in the photo above), beautiful canals and lots of bikes..... just charming. I fell in love with these peonies (my favorite flowers) and couldn't resist buying a bouquet for the apartment that we rented. Note, I picked the bright pink ones because they matched my scarf!

Whenever I travel, I always make sure that I buy at least one magazine in the language of that country. You never know what you'll find inside. I bought this magazine called "flow" in Amsterdam, it is breathtaking! If you have the opportunity to buy this one, DO! I found it so inspiring! Will share some of the inspiration I got from it on a later date. Just to keep you in suspense. : )

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I took the photo on the right in a beautiful little alley in Amsterdam. Love the wisteria! I bought the two greeting cards on the left because I thought they were so unique and colorful! Love the patterned "fabrics" on both cards and the card on the top made me want to make a collage with diamond shapes of various patterns. So cool!

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Next stop: SPAIN!

We had a wonderful time in Spain! I had to buy the red bull postcard because I'm a Taurus. : ) This photo of James and I was taken at the best paella restaurant in Madrid: La Barraca. Bea Alegria (a beloved customer and friend in Madrid) recommended that we eat there and we LOVED it! Thanks Bea! They had the best gazpacho too! : )

I couldn't resist taking a photo of the gorgeous, colorful candies at a market in Barcelona. And my favorite thing in Spain was Gaudi's Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. (photo at bottom left). More on Gaudi....

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I fell in love with Gaudi's architecture and was moved to tears! Apparently, he was quite sickly as a child so he didn't really have any friends. So, his mom would take him into the countryside on nature walks and it was there that he developed his love for nature. And when you look closely at his architecture, you can see how it is inspired by and celebrates the natural world. Amazing! Here's an example of how he was inspired by shells. Wow!

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Last stop: FRANCE!

Ahh, Paris! Belinda Schneider and I got together for 2 days of shopping in this marvelous city! She took me to my new favorite store: La Droguerie! If you're ever in Paris, don't miss this store for the world! The prices are extremely high so I didn't buy much but just seeing this shop and all of the beautiful craft materials displayed so elegantly made me feel all fuzzy and happy inside. They have ribbons, beads, yarns, buttons, feathers....ahh, it's heavenly! Note the jars in the photo above...all filled with velvet flowers and leaves. Divine! By the way, I heart Belinda. She's one heck of a cool chick, wish she lived closeby!

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Ahh, what is Paris without a nice glass of red wine? And the glorious Eiffel Tower! I bought the cute coupons at the top...they say "good for one treat." I'm thinking about using them for my diet in someway. I like my treats..maybe I earn a coupon for each workout? Or I get a certain number of coupons each week?

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I bought this awesome notebook on the left. Look at the stuffed animals and paper flowers and hearts. I love the look of this and am so inspired by it! I wish I could buy some of those animals and flowers too...guess I'll have to figure out how to make my own. lol. What a cool postcard on the top right! Love the colors and style! I bought this gardening magazine (100 idees jardin) because it has gorgeous photos of flowers that are perfect for collage. Will show you on a later date. More suspense. : )

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More cards and postcards from Paris. I love this bird greeting card on the left. I've got tons of postage stamps, this would be a great way to use them on a card. And love these 2 Eiffel Tower postcards. So unique and clever! The top one has a wallpaper background and they've just put a photo of an Eiffel Tower statue inside the bird cage and a Michael's-esque butterfly near it. Hmmm....very interesting. Might have to try something like this. Love the colors and look of the postcard below it. Very cool!

I hope you've enjoyed these tidbits of inspiration that I've collected on my trip. I'm sure there will be more to come. : )