Altered Pages Challenge 15--Chinese New Year

When I first imagined this project, I thought it would be in book form using the red book from Altered Pages that I had ordered for this purpose.  I began working with two of the Altered Pages Collage Sheets--AP2251 Year of the Horse and AP1025 Vintage Horses.  I cut out the images and adhered them to black Artist Trading Cards that I had also purchased from Altered Pages.  I found some Chinese coins and charms in my jewelry findings, some Jolee's China stickers, gold glitter tape, and black stickers.  I created a multi-layered extra large tag as the focal point for the cover.

Then I noticed the cigar box on the shelf next to my desk.  I liked the way the tag looked sitting on the top of the box.  At that point, my focus shifted to creating a box to house a book.

Because the red book wouldn't fit in this box, I folded a long strip of black cardstock into an accordion as the base for my book.  For each "page" I carefully glued Chinese Opera Paper Cuts from a Chinese Garden Gift Shop (purchased years ago) to white cardstock and protected each one with a sheet of acetate.  I layered black tape over gold Washi tape on the top of each and added coins and dimensional stickers.  On another piece of folded black cardstock, I adhered some of the ATCs I had leftover from the cover tag.  I found two cards with quotes from the Tao Te Ching that I put inside the cover of the box.  I added die cut horses silhouettes using dies from Poppystamps and some black Cloud 9 dimensional stickers.  In the bottom of the box, I used more of the ATCs, a part of a box top I had with Chinese writing on it, and more of the black dimensional stickers.

Below are photos of the interior of the box, the accordion book of Chinese paper cuts, and the other little horses book.  There is room in the box to add some other ephemera--a Chinese red envelope with coins inside, a bamboo tiles bracelet with Chinese characters on it, more coins and charms, and whatever else I find in my odds and ends that would be appropriate.

inside box, top cover

inside box with little books

inside bottom of the box

inside of horse booklet

cover images on horse booklet

cover Chinese Paper Cuts accordion book