If you enjoy painting by numbers, cross stitch or crafting in general, chances are you will love diamond painting. It is so relaxing and fun watching the art unfold into a shiny sparkly painting that you have created yourself.
Diamond paintings are art designs that have been converted into a pixelated grid and printed onto canvas and then an adhesive is layered over the canvas for the ‘stick’. At Diamond Craft we use poured glue rather than double sided adhesive. We prefer poured glue which is easier to manipulate the diamonds on the canvas if they are placed unevenly or incorrectly and there is less chance of rivers or bubbles in your canvas due to packaging or humidity. You can identify the difference from poured glue or double sided adhesive by the cover that is added to the diamond painting. The poured glue paintings use a clear cover whereas the paintings with double sided glue use white paper.
A colour coded symbol key is also printed on the canvas and assigned to a DMC colour, then the tiny resin diamonds called drills are placed onto the sticky canvas using an applicator pen and a glue/wax pad.
There is no right or wrong way in adding the diamonds onto the canvas. We can attest to working both ways either neatly in small grids or chaotically by chasing down every last colour before moving onto the next colour. Both are fun and depend entirely on your mood and preference.
Step by Step Instructions
- Unroll the canvas and place on a smooth flat surface.
- Choose your first colour to get started then pour your chosen colour of diamond drills into the tray provided . If you give the tray a little shake (not too hard) the grooves will allow the diamonds to sit rounded side up for easy application onto the canvas.
- Dip the tip of the applicator pen into the pink wax that comes in your tool kit which will help you pick the diamonds up.
- Press the tip of the applicator pen onto the rounded side of the diamond.
- Peel back the clear film and press the diamond onto its corresponding symbol.
- Repeat until all the canvas is covered.
Pro tip: Don’t entirely remove the clear cover and bin it , like we did when we tried our first painting! You can cut squares out of sections if you like to work by small grids (washi tape or regular masking tape is a popular method for doing this). Alternatively, you can fold the cover back in portions to work on a larger area. Make sure that you return the clear cover to the painting the right side up if it entirely removed otherwise it will stick in a bad way and is a nightmare to remove.