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Český Betlém nativity sheet (1991) is instantly recognizable as the work of the Czech master Vojtěch Kubašta. 

 Český Betlém, assembled, displays the appealing art and simple contstruction found in the work of Vojtěch Kubašta I can't believe I've been blogging for awhile and the name Vojtěch Kubašta — the late Czech Artist, Illustrator, and Paper Engineer who has given crèche lovers some of their most beguiling nativities — has not come up.

But leave ...

Two miniature jewels — a pop-up and fold-out nativity — reveal their beauty to the accompaniment of Gregorian Chant. (Mouseover the screen to pause, stop, start, or mute the video.) 
 The cyclamen flowers that decorate the cover of this miniature pop-up only hint at the beauty that awaits inside. Cyclamen pop-up crèche.

The fine printing, die-cut, and embossing of this pop-up nativity are even the more remarkable given its scale: most figures ...

Click on a corner of a page to see our Miniature Album. The penny provides scale.  Without Abraham Lincoln, would you know that this J.F. Schreiber miniature nativity only measures two inches high? (Flip our Miniature Album pages to see it as "Krippen 5" nativity sheet). For a while it seemed that all of Crechemania.com's miniature crèche lovers were concentrated in the Netherlands. But now, Annelies de Kort and Joke Louw have some American company: Crèche Enthusiast Carolyn Hobbes ...

When the ancient 12th Century Spanish Monastery of Our Lady, Queen of the Angels, was dismantled — stone by stone — and brought to Miami, so was this marble Nativity…

An encore of the beautiful sculpted relief panel to the accompaniment of melodious Gregorian Chant.

 The cloister, pierced by arches supported on slender columns, provided the monks with a quiet space to walk and meditate. At first, it was Benjamin who asked to see more of St. Bernard de Clairvaux ...

 Virtuoso François Debreuille at the keyboards of the organ of Notre Dame Cathedral. 
After a wonderful trip to Miami Beach and a visit to an ancient monastery and its sculpted relief Nativity, I'm back at Crèchemania Headquarters.

A fresh blanket of snow covers the Midwest, and the bright colors of Miami that surrounded me just a few days ago have been replaced by white.

But not on my computer, where bright images of blooming gardens, ...