The cards feature illustrations from Stripy Horse’s adventures inside and out – and Karen even drew some specially for the range too. Last week we galloped up to the Spring Fair in Birmingham, where the cards went on show for the first time…

We’ll pass on more news about the cards as soon as we can – hopefully they should be available to buy very soon…

Happy 2012 everyone! We’ve been busying away this month with lots of new Stripy things, more news on these soon.

In the meantime, in case you haven’t seen them, have a look at the fantastic paper Stripy Horse characters below.

Karen has put the templates up on our website to download here - all you need to do is cut them out, colour them in and stick them together using cardboard tubes… easy peasy!

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone – there are lots of exciting new Stripy things planned for 2012, so stay tuned!

We had a great time at the ‘Word Up Festival’ a few weeks back. A big thank you to all the eagle-eyed monkey counters who came along: you did a marvellous job!

For anyone who missed out on a ticket and the chance to make a mask, you can now create your own at home by clicking the links below and following the instructions.

Stripy Horse Mask

Choose any colour you like for your horse, or why not go spotty?

Monkey Mask

Turn yourself into a cheeky puzzle monkey from ‘Look Out Stripy Horse!’

Monster Tomato Mask

Best of all, become a great big splatty tomato, from ‘Oh No, Monster Tomato!’

We’ll be putting up some more exciting ‘Art and Make’ activities soon, so keep checking back. Happy cutting and colouring!

We saw lots of fairies, superheroes and pirates on a recent school visit to celebrate book week and read ‘Oh, No, Monster Tomato!’ to get everyone into the Halloween spirit.

Last night there were lots of pumpkin lanterns on our street (like the one above) so Happy Halloween and hello to everyone at St Joseph’s School in Camberwell, it was lovely to meet you all!

We’re taking part in the Word Up Festival at Alleyn’s school in Dulwich on Saturday 22nd October. Our event has just sold out, but there are lots more fantastic interviews and readings from other authors and illustrators, including Jaqueline Wilson, Judith Kerr, Andy Stanton and the amazing John Hegley (if you haven’t seen him before do get a ticket!) – more details and a programme can be found here.

For fans of non-stripy horses, author Michael Morpurgo will also be talking to Clare Balding about his book ‘War Horse’ ahead of the new exhibition at the National Army Museum.

And don’t worry if you missed out on tickets, we’ll be posting mask templates from our event soon so that you can make your own Stripy Horse, Cheeky Monkey and Splatty Tomato masks at home…

This week we were asked to decorate paper horses for display on the remembrance wall at a new exhibition illustrating the real life stories behind Michael Morpurgo’s ‘War Horse’. The exhibition features material from the fantastic War Horse stage production and interactive displays commemorating horses like Joey and the soldiers who depended on them.

Karen’s poppy field horse is named ‘Fife’ after her birthplace, where there are lots of farms and horses, while Jim’s stripy horse ‘Heart of Gold’ is named after a line from the Henry Chappell war poem written on it.

See if you can spot our horses and add your own to the remembrance wall, when the exhibition opens on 22nd October at the National Army Museum in London.

More details here.

The event starts at 10.30am at the Battersea Children’s Library, Lavender Hill, so come along if you can!

The festival runs until 3rd Oct and there are lots of other fantastic events ahead. This year the theme is monsters! You can download a copy of the whole programme of events, plus details of a special monster hunt competition here.

We took Stripy Horse on a tour of the site in the afternoon. Here he is below, and look: Karen has learnt the impressive art of umbrella juggling…

Saturday night’s headline band were the Lovely Eggs and they were ace – there aren’t enough songs about ‘sausage roll thumbs’. We watched the movers and shakers dancing down at the front before waving goodbye.

So, the nights are drawing in again, but keep checking back for more exciting Stripy news this Autumn. We’ll be at a couple of events in October too – more news on these soon…

Afterwards Stripy Horse took us along to the newly re-opened National Museum of Scotland, which is full of almost as many incredible things as his Bric-a-Brac Shop. We learned all about Dodos and Kakapos and saw an enormous Sun Fish – go and have a look if you get the chance, its nearly as big as a bus! On the way home he said hello to Greyfriars Bobby and met some very different, but just as colourful horses…