The Starter Pokemon: Bulbasaur

The start of a new "series!" Folks have been asking me to share some of the templates I make. What better way to start than with the Pokemon who joined us on our adventures.

Whenever I work on a crafts project, I try my best to plan it out. For Perler, it usually entails making a template in Photoshop with the original sprite and then a color edited version using the Perler colors. This is shown in the image above. Left-hand side shows the original sprite; right-hand shows the Perler color edits. The sprites I use are from the Poke Bank and later 3DS games. Frequently, people ask where to find these sprites. My go to website is the "Spriters Resource." The specific spritesheet I used for Pokemon is [HERE].

I purchase the majority of my beads at Joann's and take advantage of their mail, online, and mobile app coupons. Bulbasaur is a smaller sprite, but its colors are a bit of a pain to find in stores. cranapple and green are not sold in their own 1000 count packages. At my local Joann's I am able to purchase 1000 count packages of black, evergreen, kiwi green, red, white, grey, and dark grey. Dark green is available in a 6000 count package, as well as white, black, red, and grey. I usually restock my green beads by buying and sorting the "Circus" bead kit. This kit has a lot of colors not needed for this project, but it does have white and black. For cranapple, normally I purchase the "Holiday Mix," also labeled as "Christmas Mix," which includes kiwi green, dark green, red, and white.

If someone wanted to order directly from the Perler website and not have to worry about where to find which colors, I'd recommend purchasing 1000 count packages of the Holiday Mix, black, evergreen, green, grey, and dark grey. The beads after Perler's "the more you buy, the more you save" discount would cost $11.94 and shipping would be $7.95 for a grand total of $19.89. Although not needed, I would strongly recommend purchasing clear beads. Depending on how the beads are ironed, sections where there is only one bead connected to another are flimsy and easily broken. Usually clear beads are added for sturdiness.

Bulbasaur is 20 pixels wide and 19 pixels high. The interlocking pegboards are 29 beads by 29 beads, so our favorite salad only needs 1 pegboard.

I've been considering doing kits on the Etsy shop for people who want to try beading but do not want to invest into the storage, beads, and boards. If this is something of interest, please let me know!

Hope you like this quick guide! More are to come, so any and all feedback is appreciated.