Start with the finished size
Size decides how many pegboards you'll link and how many evenings a piece takes, so check it first. The figures below assume standard 5 mm beads.
One board, or close. Every animal in Cute Animal Fuse Bead Patterns fits a single 29 by 29 square board and uses 255 to 431 beads, about 5.7 inches across when done. Ocean is a step up, 30 creatures of 445 to 1,137 beads, with the blue whale as the largest at about 10 by 6 inches. Nineteen of the 20 Vintage Keepsake motifs stay within 37 by 36 squares.
Quick pieces inside bigger sets. In the twelve shop sets, the objects are the fast builds, from a 344-bead pencil lying on the diagonal to a 1,247-bead bathhouse. The eight smallest Thanksgiving designs take 1,085 to 1,678 beads, and the Dinosaur book's egg and footprint each fit on one sheet.
A few boards joined. Kawaii Pixel runs 6 to 8 inches on the long side, Halloween about 8 to 11, and Cute Dog 9.4 inches, though a dog takes only 573 to 1,155 beads. Cute Cat figures stand 9.8 inches tall, Kawaii Food runs 6.5 to 12.4, and every Bear Breakfast design is 64 beads, about 12.6 inches, on its long side. Most shop characters fall here too, with 2,000 to 3,600 beads apiece, while the pajama friends in Bedtime Toy are smaller at 1,218 to 1,683.
Big projects. Laundry Day characters take 3,040 to 4,149 beads, and the bunny alone is about 20 inches tall. Seaside Ice Cream characters run 3,396 to 5,380. The large Thanksgiving turkey is 96 beads tall, and the Alphabet words, 1,399 to 4,821 beads, are far bigger than a charm.
Wall pieces. Cozy Capybara designs are 104 beads, about 20.5 inches, on the long side. Detailed Kitten cats run 19.5 to 30.3 inches and up to 10,189 beads, and every Large Butterfly is about 25 inches wingtip to wingtip. Little Lamb comes in three widths, 10.8, 13.4 and 15.7 inches. Puppy Play Club dogs are 18.9 inches wide, Forest Friends animals 25.2, and the Sweet Paws penguin is over 38 inches tall. The Colorful Bunny designs are 31.5 inches across.
5 mm beads or 2.6 mm minis
A chart square is one bead, so on 2.6 mm minis a design comes out at roughly half the size. What changes from book to book is how much help you get with minis.
- Separate true-size sheets for each bead size: Winter, Dinosaur, Ocean, Butterfly, Kitten and Vintage. At 2.6 mm every winter design and every sea creature fits on one page.
- A second, coarser grid: in Bakery and Room Decor, the mini version is redrawn with fewer squares. The bakery croissant drops from 1,885 beads to 813, losing a few of its flaky lines.
- Sizes stated for minis: the Thanksgiving books give finished sizes at 2.6 mm, so double them for standard beads.
Not every mini pegboard is spaced at exactly 2.6 mm, so measure yours against a printed sheet, and keep to one bead size within a piece.
Lay-on sheets or reading charts
Some books print at true bead size. Cute Cat (5 mm only), Winter, Dinosaur, Ocean, Butterfly, Kitten, Vintage, Bakery and Room Decor all have sheets you print at 100% with fit-to-page turned off and set under a clear pegboard. Most add a measuring line, so check it with a ruler before the first bead goes down.
The rest are reading charts, enlarged so the codes are legible. The page sits next to the board and you count across and down. That covers the shop sets, Thanksgiving, Bear Breakfast, Alphabet, Capybara and the other older books. Bear Breakfast adds an A3 edition with bigger squares, and the Alphabet and Laundry Day codes print small enough that a zoomed PNG on a tablet is easier.
Large charts are split into blocks, and the joins work two ways. The Bunny, Capybara, Lamb, Puppy, Forest Friends and Sweet Paws panels, plus the detailed tiles in Bakery and Room Decor, repeat two rows or columns at each seam, so place those beads once. In the other split charts, blocks meet edge to edge and the numbering simply carries on. In several shop sets, the bead table printed on every block counts the whole design, so read it once.
Color codes and buying beads
None of the books ask for one bead brand. Halloween, Cute Animal and Cute Dog name their colors after a bead maker's range to help you match shades; everywhere else the codes are the pack's own, so hold your beads up to the hex values or swatches. Most books also restart their codes in each design, which means 05 on one chart is not 05 on the next.
A shared palette makes buying for several pieces much easier. Thanksgiving uses one 21-color list for all 24 designs, Bakery needs only eight shades in total and Room Decor twelve, and Winter and Dinosaur each code their set Z01 to Z32. The Post Office objects share 16 shades, though its characters don't. Among the older books, Cute Cat, Kawaii Pixel, Kawaii Food, Cute Animal, Cute Dog and Halloween each keep one list, and every Little Lamb design comes from one pastel palette.
In books with a palette per design, a few habits help. In Garden Tea Party, code 01 is almost the same dark brown on every chart, so one bag covers the outlines. In Peach Soda, some colors appear on only a bead or two, and the nearest shade you own will do. The butterflies list 24 shades each, several nearly identical, so one bead color can stand in for neighboring codes. Where count CSVs are included, combine them in a spreadsheet and total by hex value, importing as text so 01 keeps its zero. A square left without a code is an empty peg, which is how the handles of cups, baskets and lanterns stay open.
Picking a subject
Storybook shops. Each set has 20 charts in US Letter and A4: Strawberry Picnic, Bath Time, Carrot Farm, Laundry Day, Garden Tea Party, Bedtime Toy, Post Office, Peach Soda, Rainy Day Mushroom, Seaside Ice Cream, Winter Cottage and Stationery. In Peach Soda and Mushroom, a few things the animals carry are also object charts, so a character and its prop make a matching pair.
Cats and dogs. Cute Cat gives 30 chubby cats one body and new costumes, while Detailed Kitten draws 30 large cats in real coat colors, from calico to Siamese. Cute Dog covers 28 breeds plus a bone and a tennis ball, and Puppy Play Club poses 24 breeds with shaded fur.
More animals. Small cute animals, forest sprites, 24 capybaras holding props, a bunny with something new in each of 30 designs, a lamb on its way to the farm, 21 butterflies in different color stories, 30 sea creatures, and 16 dinosaur species with eight of them redrawn in earthier colors.
Food. Kawaii Food has 60 smiling foods, Sweet Paws dresses twelve animals as desserts, Bear Breakfast pairs eight bears with toast and waffles, and Bakery charts 30 breads, cakes and shop pieces.
Seasons. Halloween is 36 friendly designs, Thanksgiving comes in small, medium and large, Winter puts 24 animals in scarves and earmuffs, and Winter Cottage is full of roasted chestnuts.
Words and keepsakes. Each Alphabet design is one whole word spelled inside a picture, APPLE in an apple and OCEAN in a fish, not single letters for names. Room Decor makes 30 flat furniture pieces for a tiny room, Vintage Keepsake has cameos, lace and a pocket watch, and Kawaii Pixel mixes animals with a double-decker bus and a castle.
Before you start
Several books flag easy patterns. Halloween uses a five-dot score, Cute Dog rates every chart, Kawaii Food marks easy to detailed, Bakery calls its baguette and dough easy, and Room Decor's star garland is its only easy one. The Dinosaur footprint needs 781 beads in two colors. Older books other than Cute Cat print on US Letter, as do Thanksgiving, Alphabet and Capybara. An adult should do the ironing, and loose beads aren't for children under 3.