Celebrating Pokémon’s 30th Anniversary with Two Big Challenges!

Did you know that 2026 marks the 30th anniversary of Pokémon? It’s a huge milestone!

While I’ll admit I am relatively new to the Pokémon world compared to some who have been there since the nineties, it is now something that completely envelops our daily lives here.

To celebrate this anniversary, I have decided to set myself a couple of significant challenges. Initially, I thought of these as goals just for 2026, but having looked at the scale of them, I have a feeling these projects will be continuing for years to come!

Here is what I am planning.

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Challenge 1: The Book Fold 151

My first challenge plays to my strengths: book folding. I’ve decided to set myself the monumental task of creating a book fold for every single one of the original 151 Pokémon (Generation 1).

This is going to be a huge, slow-burn project. I know that some designs will naturally be quick and simple, while others are going to be incredibly detailed and will take weeks to complete.

When I first came up with this idea, I originally thought about setting a rigid goal of completing one a week. However, I know myself too well—if I put that much pressure on myself, I’ll just end up getting overwhelmed and quitting. So, there is officially no schedule. I will just share them as and when they are finished, enjoying the process along the way.

Given that 151 is a lot of books to fit in alongside my other regular crafting, I can see this project running for a long time, but I’m so excited to get started on that journey.

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Challenge 2: The TCG Pokédex (And stepping out of my comfort zone!)

My second Pokémon project takes me way out of my comfort zone.

For a while now, I have wanted to complete a physical Pokédex of Trading Card Game (TCG) cards. That’s one giant binder holding a card for each of the 1025 Pokémon!

I thought, why not document the process? The plan is to create YouTube Shorts where a random number generator selects a Pokédex number for the day, and I then add that specific card to my collection binder on camera.

I’m not quite ready to launch this one just yet. I must admit, I’m very nervous as I really haven’t done any video work before. It feels very new! But despite the nerves, I’m also excited—and secretly a bit proud of the prep work I’ve done so far.

I really want to fully embrace the upcoming 30th anniversary of this wonderfully diverse world that has brought us so much joy. I can’t wait to share both of these long journeys with you all!

Clare x