Woohoo - I am a *Ginger Gem*!!!

Today I woke up to a freezing, grey November day -not a good incentive to get out of bed. But I did, staggered to the kitchen to make my first coffee and settled at my computer for *breakfast* - coffee and computer. I gave up toast because of the detrimental effect of crumbs in the keyboard, although I will admit to an occasional currant bun, they don't crumble so much! But not today.
Switched the computer on, looked through my mails and usual sites, and saw that I had been chosen to be a *Ginger Gem* for my entry *Colours of Autumn* - woohoo! Last week *Simon Says* and this week *Ginger Gems*!!A good start to my day, and a big incentive to keep on meeting new people and trying new things in crafting!

LIIU Challenge No 6 - Recycling

Now, for this challenge I was planning on recycling a small drawer to make a little show-box. Well, I am still thinking of recycling it, but need to work on it much longer than I had planned, so decided to do something else. Bought a rather tatty wreath in a charity shop for 50 cents. Took it home, cleaned it, and pulled off the few remaining roses, they must have been the last roses of summer! Then I sprayed it with snow spray to make it look wintery. You will be pleased to hear that the table and part of the floor also looked wintery - moral - put down some old paper first, or you need to be cleaning afterwards! Then I took the silver ribbon off a box of Xmas candles I had bought, straightened it, and wound it around, before winding some wire with mini-baubles around, too. Used a hot glue gun to get it all stuck. The flowers have been die-cut with TH *Tattered florals*, put together, distressed, and given a bit of bling with silver stickles. The centre has been made with a mini mirror circle. Stuck them on with the glue-gun, too. Then I stuck on the little sleeping angel, which was part of a Xmas bouquet last year. The card at the bottom has been distressed with TH inks, the houses are a TH on the edge die, Santa and the stars have been stamped, the birds have been cut with a Martha Stewart punch, and the tree and sentiment have been hand doodled. Was fun to make, even if it wasn't quite what I had planned, but it is all recycled, total cost 2,50€, and I still have a lot of snow spray left....Thanks for looking, I'm off to clean the floor and table in the kitchen!

Tag - *Things that make me happy* - Simon Says Challenge

Made this tag for the *Simon Says* challenge. Things that bring me happiness is such a huge notion, that it is hard to fit it onto a little tag or card. I cut the tag from recycled card, distressed the background and stamped & embossed the bird-cage and foliage on it. The large bird has been stamped, cut out and decoupaged, the 2 small birdies have been cut with a Martha Stewart punch. The large bird, foliage and bird-cage stamps are all from Tim Holtz, as are the inks. I gave the large bird a bell (from an Easter Bunny!) and added a mini post-card as title. The gems and pearls are from Prima. Was fun to make, as always, but now I have to do some housework before my place is knee deep in paper snippets! Thanks for looking!

Gothic Arches *Baubles* Challenge

This time the challenge was to make an arch with *baubles*, a good excuse to use up some *bling* from my stash that has lately been gathering dust. I used a photo of a distant relation, taken in 1918 when she was 3, and evidently a little lady of fashion. She still loved to be fashionable when she was over 90! I mounted the photo behind a die-cut arched door, which can be opened or closed. I like it closed, where the photo behind can just be glimpsed.... The arch behind has been cut with a scalloped circle die from Sizzix, using paper from the DCWV *Fairy Tale* stack. The edges have been distressed with TH ink. Was fun to make - as always! Thanks for looking!

Simon Says Stamp and Show your Favourite Tim Holtz Stamp!

Impossible to have just one favourite stamp from TH!! As I love nearly all of his things, I have made a tag using lots of different techniques, as I always have different favourites! The tag is made of corrugated cardboard from an old box, and has first been embossed with my favourite TH embossing folder. Then I swiped it with archival black and clear embossed it. Then came the perfect pearls in pink, gold and interference blue, which I heat embossed again. Then I used my favourite bird-cage die, cut from an old chocolate package. The bird has been die-cut from cardboard, clear embossed and then brushed with the same colours of perfect pearls before heating. The nest has been made from some fibres, the metal charm is from LaBlanche, with a flower embedded in glossy accents. The *admit one* ticket has been stamped with archival ink, clear-embossed and then cut out and fixed with jump rings to the cage. Was fun to make, as always, but difficult to photograph and get the colours! Thanks for looking!

GC78: Spicy Supply Challenge - Sewing Notions

The background for this has been made with sticky backed canvas, printed with a virtual collage, and decorated with various bits and bobs from the sewing box. The prints I used for the collage are taken from an old German Ladies' Magazine, showing the latest fashions and sewing tips from 1900, and an old bill, which I scanned & distressed. The photo is of Miriam, when she was about 4 months old - I had been sewing, she was sitting next to me on the couch, and enjoying playing with the tape measure. I die cut the lace around her pic. The bowler hatted gent in the right corner was once sewn into a garment, it is part of a little plastic bag which held the spare buttons. The cards in the top left hand corner once held darning wool, and the little cut-out doll and dress were taken from an Israeli magazine from the 1950's. The buttons are also from my button tin, and the leaves are from Prima. Was fun to make, especially looking at all the old bits and bobs in my sewing tin, which is always a journey into the past. Thanks for looking!

The Night the Synagogues burnt....Reichspogromnacht 1938

In the night from November 9th/10th 1938 the Nazis started a pogrom. The action had been planned for weeks, all local SA and SS groups had been informed. During the evening, SA & SS groups started to smash the windows of Jewish shops and houses, Jewish families were pulled from their beds, their belongings smashed to bits or thrown out of the windows, people were arrested without any reason, many were beaten up and badly injured, and then the synagogues throughout Germany were set on fire. More than 7000 Jewish shops and businesses were also destroyed. Police and fire brigade had been ordered to attend, but only to prevent people helping or to insure that the fire did not spread to neighbouring, non-Jewish properties. Many photos show passers by just standing, watching. Others show the fire brigade standing in front of the burning houses and laughing. Hospitals and doctors were forbidden to treat the wounded, although many did, in spite of endangering themselves. More than 20,000 people (including my great uncle and his father) were carried off to prisons or concentration camps, where they were repeatedly beaten, and only released when their families could prove that they had documents and tickets to leave Germany. Between three and four thousand people died either during the night or later as a result of their injuries or subsequent beatings.. Some or them disappeared, probably beaten to death and *disposed of*.
The pogrom was *sold* to the German and international media as an *act of spontaneous people’s anger* to revenge the shooting of the German Ambassador Von Rath by the 17 year old Herschel Grynszpan in Paris. To *punish* the Jews for the damage they had caused (!) a *punishment tax* was levied to pay for the costs of the burnt out synagogues and their demolition, which amounted to the amazing sum of 1,127billion Reich mark. This night was called *Cristal Night* by the Nazis to make it sound like something harmless, where just a few windows got broken. In reality it was a long planned vicious pogrom, which should have shown the rest of the world what Hitler was up to. Those who managed to emigrate from Germany after this were *lucky*, even if they lost everything they had, those who stayed ended in the concentration camps, where 6 million Jews from the whole of Europe were murdered, including all of the family of my grandmother in Berlin.
This is in memory of them, and all who lost their lives as a result of this madness that engulfed the whole world.