Another completed project

One more old project has been completed. This one is possibly the oldest I have. It includes Chinese New Year swaps from 2005 and 2007. While rearranging some drawers, I ran across these two swaps in two different places. I finally knew how to deal with them: I could put them together as a stand-alone book instead of as tip-ins in a bound book. I was so happy with my decision, I spent the entire day working on them, and just finished the book tonight. It was very late when I snapped these photos, so the color is a bit "off." The scanned pages (below) are much closer to the correct color.
I began by creating the covers using two layers of cardboard from a USPS Flat Rate envelope. For this side, I applied gesso with a brush, but added some butterscotch color wash to the gesso before I spread it around.

When the gesso was dry, I collaged papers and cancelled postage stamps on the outside covers. The letters were given to me by Kat for our Asian books swap. I made additional copies, then colored them with red watercolor to which I added silver mica powder. I had to make four copies for the "Es." I decided to use my postage cut decorative scissors because I had never used them before to cut alphabet letters.
I used a Chinese restaurant place mat to decorate the inside. I ran a gold leafing pen around the outside to give the pages a finished look.
You can see from this angle that the number of tip-ins are just the right amount for this book, but there is also room to add more in case I have more to add in the years to come. Although it's a bit dark, this is the completed book's front and back covers after assembly. You can see I added fibers and beads around the rings.
I pondered what to do with this book, then remembered I have my Asian book sitting on top of this container that Kat bought both of us to keep our Asian books in. However, when we finished our books, they were way too large to store in these containers. They were, however, very nice to cart our books back and forth when they were still in progress.
Kat must have had deja vu, because this book of swaps fits perfectly inside this container. What a pleasant surprise it will be when someone opens it to find all the wonderful swap tip-in pages bound and placed in this very appropriate container.