Another pop-up booklet

A friend, who is a keen gardener, has a birthday coming up and I wanted to send her a booklet similar to the one I made back in May.  I had saved my original design on the computer, both as just the line drawing and the final colour version.  I used 120 gsm computer paper - anything thicker might be difficult to cut and fold neatly.  As it was, I didn't manage to get all the edges to line up very well, but once I had attached the cover these were less obvious and I was able to trim the bottom edge to tidy it all up.

The cover is painted and stamped on 120 gsm paper, with a paper band closure

If you fancy having a go at something similar, this is my cutting and folding guide -
it's very easy to lose track if I don't have this in front of me.

Urban Sketchers - November meeting

Lately, I seem to have been spending far too much time "doing stuff" on the computer, in addition to trying to sort out my Christmas card for this year.  My original plans for the card didn't turn out quite as hoped and there have been one or two amendments along the way, but all will be revealed later in December.

Anyway, on 3rd November our sketch group met at The Bakers Cafe in the Old Swindon Railway Village, built 170 odd years ago for the workers of Brunel's Great Western Railway Works. Until recent years there were three public houses in the village, The Bakers Arms, The Cricketers and The Glue Pot.  Only The Glue Pot remains as a pub, but the Bakers Arms building has recently been taken over by the community and is trying to establish itself as a meeting place and cafe.  Once again, we had a very good crowd, with 20 sketchers turning up.

I hadn't intended to take a panorama, so it is a bit disjointed

My minimal effort for the day -
A very old organ in one corner and
a mosaic teapot on the mantlepiece

Inktober 29th to 31st

Walking through the centre of Henley on Thames we passed a group of six houses, all with beautifully decorated frontages.  The designs were all the same, but each had a different colour scheme. I was fascinated by these and took three or four photos for reference; although my tiny sketch only hints at the complicated patterns, I might use them as inspiration for a linocut at some stage.