The idea of my new book Charlie and Lola: One Thing (published in October this year) came to me because I love the way little children start counting almost before anything else. I actually wrote the story before my daughter Tuesday came along, but it was lovely because one of the things we loved to do when she was very little was to count. Count the number of stairs on the way up to bed; count the number of peas we could eat. I always wanted One Thing to be a book that celebrated numbers and how they are beautiful to look at. I love the sound of them – there is poetry in numbers

I actually wrote the story about Charlie and Lola really wanting a dog years ago because Charlie’s friend Marv has a sausage dog. I love sausage dogs – they are so comfy looking and charming. My dad had a friend who had one when we were little and carried it around with him under his arm. I thought this was marvellous. Later we wanted the dog in the TV series to be a sausage dog. I didn’t name him Sizzles, I wanted to call him Bubbles but I’m often teased for wanting to change all the names so this was the one name I didn’t change in the end!

I designed this page as a list, as I didn’t want to show them talking about food and this was a way of showing all the food with words, very clearly labelled underneath. It would make it easy for children to read or learning to read. I wanted to make it a bit like a poem that Charlie repeats

Children love measuring themselves to see how much they’ve grown and how “big” they are. In this story Lola wants to be small so she doesn’t have to go to school. I did it as a height chart with graph paper behind to make the page more interesting, trying to show things in different ways that might capture the imagination

I found this little dress that my mother had made for us girls when we were little. She had got rid of nearly everything and this was one of the few dresses that wasn’t put in the jumble. I found it and was quite emotional about it. So I made the fabric into paper and then made tiny little pyjamas out of the paper

This is the key scene of The Princess and the Pea, which I created with Polly Borland, so the image has to work very hard. I painted the room green so it was pea green and made the paper curtains vivid pink that looked stunning against the green. The bed was tricky to make – getting it to hold together was difficult because it was so flimsy. There is an exquisite chest of drawers in the set that was made by a dollhouse furniture maker with lovely things on it. I wanted to show it was a very fine room. It was very hard getting everything in the shot, it was a bit of a puzzle getting it right

I couldn’t resist sharing this picture of that Pesky Rat, in his adorable jumper! It’s part of the exhibition that’s being put on at the National Trust’s Mottisfont in Hampshire. The exhibition runs until September 6 2015 and includes 50 original art works from my personal collection including a preview of illustrations from my new book Charlie and Lola: One Thing, published this autumn, alongside objects that inspired the stories. There’s also a family trail and activities so do come and visit! More info here www.nationaltrust.org.uk/mottisfont.

Here’s an illustration from My Uncle Is A Hunkle, one of my Clarice Bean books. I’d always known I was going to mirror the very first end-paper that introduces the family and their different characteristics so I wanted the final spread to show how they come together and how much they like each other. Clarice Bean is about the ordinary, simple everyday things

Here’s an illustration from my book Hubert Horatio Bartle Bolton-Trust. This seemed to me the nicest way of showing someone reaching for a shelf – with a whole series of toppling items. It was visually more fun

I remember thinking that I wanted to do the background in this illustration from Hubert Horatio Bartle Bolton-Trust as a Chinese landscape or cityscape but then I thought it really doesn’t need to be that complicated. In the end I used some Chinese silk that I had leftover from my lampshades. It was a piece of dragon silk and was a much better way of evoking China

When I was growing up in the 1970s I watched the TV version of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden avidly, and it made me read the book. So when Puffin asked me to illustrate The Secret Garden for them I was very excited. I watched the DVDs all over again. One of the scenes that I remember really clearly was Mary arriving at Misselthwaite Manor. That scene really inspired my version of Mary as seen here, staring out of the window

My book Who wants to be a poodle (Puffin) is meant to be a funny book. The reader sees everything from the dog’s point of view, of Trixie being treated like a child when she just wants to be a dog. The book is set in that very elegant era of the 1950s in either Paris or New York. I had numerous visions of what her home was like from old 50s and 60s movies with lots of dark wood

Here’s another illustration from Who wants to be a Poodle. I made the words as if they are the dogs running around, which I like!

Here’s an illustration of my book The New Small Person. I realised as I was beginning to illustrate it that the book was about a child that is trying to make himself safe, surrounding himself with his things. When his toys are damaged or touched by the small person it’s a metaphor for Elmore’s world being encroached upon. Toys are his security and we see what’s going on in his head. That he fears that he won’t be special any more

One of the things that struck me when I started illustrating Astrid Lindgren’s classic Pippi Longstocking was just how many times the horse is mentioned in the story. Horses are notoriously difficult to draw. I drew it many times in order to get it right but in the end I wanted to have a different perspective on the horse so I just showed bits of it – its legs and back end

In my story Beware the Story Book Wolves someone has messed up the fairy tale and the small wolf is very excited to find himself wearing Cinderella’s dress and going to the ball. I like this picture and didn’t have to do much to make it funny

Here Herb runs through the woods in Beware the Story Book Wolves. This seemed to me something that comes up a lot in so many fairy tales of people running through the wood so I wanted to try to make this funny by having him running past things – children eating the gingerbread house, the cat wearing huge boots…

I love this image of Lola for the 15 year anniversary edition of I Am Not Sleepy and I Will Not Go To Bed, Lola is just so bouncy!

Thank you Lauren for sharing your words and pictures with us!

I made this illustration of Mottisfont’s plane tree - specially for the exhibition which they are running to celebrate 15 years of Charlie and Lola. I do hope you will get a chance to go and see it! It runs all summer until 6 September and include action-packed family trails designed by me! Visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk/mottisfont or call 01794 340757 for more info.

Don’t forget to enter our giveaway competition!

The winner will receive a tote bag and mug designed exclusively by Lauren Child for National Trust property Mottisfont, plus a set of books Charlie and Lola books signed by Lauren Child. And two runners-up will each receive a tea towel, designed exclusively by Lauren Child, plus a set of signed Charlie and Lola books. Under 18s (or those acting on behalf of them) have until 10 August 5pm to enter by email childrens.books@theguardian.com using with heading “Charlie and Lola giveaway” saying why you should win, read Ts and Cs here before you do.