What is Diamond Painting?
Diamond painting is a DIY craft hobby. It’s similar to a paint by number or cross stitch, except you’re making pixel art on a canvas by affixing diamond drills (beads). Pop “Diamond Painting” into Youtube and check out the videos with tips and demonstrations! It's much easier to understand by watching than explaining!
Diamond paintings come in kits with all the beads (known as "drills) and tools you’ll need.
They come in many different designs - some have popular art/characters, and there are all kinds of themes. You can even turn a photo (or any digital image) into a custom diamond painting at certain companies.
About the Kits
The cost of these kits range depending on the size and where you’re ordering them from. The bigger the better since this is pixel art - if you order too small, you get a rather muddled image in return.
Also, be aware that there are two kinds of kits: Full Drill and Partial Drill.
Full drill means the whole piece is filled with diamonds. Partial drill means that just a section of the picture has diamonds, and the rest is a colored background. Here’s a video to show you more info on it.
You can pick them up off of places like Amazon (cheaper and smaller kits). I suggest checking reviews to see if there are pictures of the finished piece just to be sure you’ll be happy with the outcome. My first kit came from Amazon and I had no idea what I was even buying at the time! I just got lucky that it was a good sized piece and that it turned out looking nice.
You can get more expensive kits at places like Diamond Art Club. These are larger, always high quality, and really great kits. I’ve ordered several from this store and am always impressed by the quality. Just know you’re going to pay more for a better product, though. Also keep in mind that DAC pays royalties to the artists and has the artst's permission to use the images, so that adds to the cost. Some of these may also be a bit overwhelming to start with because of their large size.
For more variety, you can order form overseas (a lot of this originated in China). Places like Aliexpress and EveryDayDeals have LOTS of designs to search through. Just know that you’re going to be waiting months for shipping, especially with Covid slowing everything down. Also, double check if you buy from Aliexpress that the seller has good reviews. There are shops there known for their custom kits, but they take a long time to come. Know that these shops usually don't pay royalties to the artists, nor do they have the artist's permission to use these images. So if that's important to you, you may want to look at other shops instead.
Other places to look: Etsy, Wish and Ebay! Just search Diamond Painting. Again, Wish and some Etsy sellers may be sending from overseas, so may take some time.
For more information on where to find kits, check out my Resources page!