Sprite Stitch Board!

This is my first big project. I've done the usual 8-bit stuff. White mage, Black mage, river city ransom, mega man and the like. Sorry for the washed out color, apparently my phone is a nub.






Also, if anyone has any tips on ironing a big project PLS let me know. The only other multi board project I did was three pegboards and it failed horribly.

Ah, gotta love the Turtles. Reminds me of a project I need to get to. Great job so far!

For ironing a big project, I suggest going very very very very slow. Start at one end and creeeeeeeep your way up to the top. Make sure your pegboards are as flat as can be (warped boards will ruin a project). Make sure your paper is clean and fold-free, as sticky or bent or even old paper can stick unnaturally to certain beads and create problems. If you absolutely have to pick up your iron to melt a certain area of the sprite, then make sure you do a straight vertical lift off...no dragging the iron or easing it off, just straight vertical lift off. And straight vertical descent when you place it on the paper, too. Do not stop ironing an area until you 1. see every bead stuck to the paper 2. the hole in the middle has disappeared completely (some people iron a little less than this, which is fine, but you absolutely have to make sure every bead is melted before you continue). Do this on a low enough iron setting so the outer beads will not warp. If you have any Hama beads in any area, make sure to iron that section even more carefully, as Hama beads melt at a different temperature and it takes a little work to get them to fuse to the Perler beads (this too can ruin an entire project).

If you jostle the boards or the ironing papers AT ALL, you MUST take off the ironing papers and reexamine the sprite. Even if the papers lie flat. Even if it looks fine beneath the ironing papers. A bead can get loose and lodge itself sideways, and then you'll iron over it none the wiser and it does not look good. Sometimes a jostle can rearrange even two or three beads enough to switch them and ruin the aesthetic of the sprite.

I like to use big books to weight down the edges as I iron, to prevent warping, but you don't have to do this right away if you intend to iron the other side (which I highly recommend, so as to protect the sprite and make it easy to mount).

If for some reason your beads do not fuse properly and there are some stray beads left behind, don't panic. You can fix this when you iron the opposite side. By lying the cool, melted side of the sprite face-down, you can use sticky tack to hold the stray beads or pieces in place (placing tack on the underside of the bead and wedging it into the appropriate spot. Add sticky tack to underside of surrounding melted beads if need be, to steady it for ironing) and then iron the entire backside. When that cools and you flip to the original side, you can remove the sticky tack and re-iron to smooth over the appearance of the replaced beads, which should now be attached. Be sure however to do this technique on a surface that is sticky tack safe.

Its finished. The ironing was as hard as I thought it'd be. Still not happy with the ironing, as some parts are 100% melted closed and others aren't. I'm pretty happy for my first big project tho.

Nice work!

A technique that I've come to like for large pieces is to flip the image (left to right) on my computer and bead it backwards. Then you can iron it as much as you want to close all of the holes. The other side will go unironed and will be the show side. Sure, there are holes on the front, but I prefer it because it's uniform and doesn't glare as much when the light hits it.

That looks really good. Are you going to make the rest of the Turtles?

Haha, that is the second most common question I've got. Second to only "Why didn't you make (different turtle name here) instead? Donatello sucks".

I might make the rest of them since people have been asking me to, but I will need a lot of green, lulz

Skyeripper wrote:Haha, that is the second most common question I've got. Second to only "Why didn't you make (different turtle name here) instead? Donatello sucks".

I might make the rest of them since people have been asking me to, but I will need a lot of green, lulz

Yay Turtles!! I didn't think Donatello was THAT bad...I still think a Bo is better than Sais

Honestly, I based the picture and my decision off the arcade version of the game. Donatello had the longest reaching weapon, therefore he was the best choice.

Skyeripper wrote:Honestly, I based the picture and my decision off the arcade version of the game. Donatello had the longest reaching weapon, therefore he was the best choice.

Yeah Donatello was the one I always used in the TMNT games. He was my favorite b/c his weapon had the farthest reach.

Rozez1982 wrote:

Skyeripper wrote:Honestly, I based the picture and my decision off the arcade version of the game. Donatello had the longest reaching weapon, therefore he was the best choice.

Yeah Donatello was the one I always used in the TMNT games. He was my favorite b/c his weapon had the farthest reach.

I always thought Leonardo was the best with his katana..Raphael was the worst by far