Category Archives: Diamond Painting

EasyWhim’s Unicorn: My 1st Square Drill Diamond Painting

Since starting diamond painting last year, I’ve done a quite a few round drill kits, but no squares. When I spoke to EasyWhim Arts and Crafts™ about reviewing one of their kits, they were almost as excited as I was! I was warned that square drills have a higher difficulty level than rounds, but I’m always up for a challenge!

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I chose to tackle the Magical Unicorn kit, which is a 25cm by 30cm canvas. The kit includes everything I needed to start; canvas, instructions, drills, wax, drill tray, applicator pen and tweezers.  IMG_6040

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I seriously love EasyWhim for the way they package their drills. Each drill color (and there were 35 colors in my kit!) comes individually packaged in a resealable bag marked clearly with both the appropriate kit number and DMC color, as well as an approximate count of the drills.

As I was traveling most of this summer, I was able to fit all the drills and accessories in a small Tupperware®-like case and take my project with me.

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As you can see, squares are a bit harder to work when you first start doing them. The alignment alone can cause headaches if you are a fan of precision. IMG_6329This gets better as you go. I found the best advice I’d been given was to use a ruler to straighten the alignment and to place the drills in large sections in a checkerboard pattern.

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As you can see, there are a few drills I have to fix still.

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This is officially the longest time I’ve spent working on a diamond painting. I started this back in July, and worked on it in sections in between conventions and other things all summer and fall. I finally finished it in October. IMG_6675I am so incredibly proud of how pretty this turned out! The drills are sparkly and once pressed for a few hours they don’t pop out. The image looks exactly like it does on the website, and I’ll be framing this for SC’s home office.

Diamond Art Specs:

  • Company: EasyWhim
  • Title: Magical Unicorn
  • Colors: 35
  • Finished size: 25cm by 30cm
  • Difficulty Level: Intermediate/Advanced
  • Gem Shapes: Square
  • Gem Fit: Excellent

QUALITY: 

  • Box: Small compact box, easy storage
  • Image Quality: Excellent, great color saturation
  • Finish: Glittery without the glitter!

Disability Notes: I can definitely recommend this for a person whose hands have good and bad days, but not if you have problems with your eyesight..  I worked on a lapdesk on the couch, and at the kitchen table, both places that have excellent natural light. Other than my butt going numb, it was a very comfortable project to work on.

Where to buy: You can purchase Magical Unicorn – DIY 5D Diamond Painting Kit on EasyWhim’s website. It normally retails for $29.99 USD, but is currently on sale for $9.99 USD.

EasyWhim Arts and Crafts : Website / FaceBook

Disclosure: I received a complimentary Diamond Kit from the manufacturer in exchange for review. The opinions are my own. All links are direct, I do not make money from them. All images of the product are ©Easy Whim 2019.

Thanks for reading, and please click the Follow Button under my profile on the right side of the page. To support posts like this in the future, consider joining my Patreon!

Roses and Sparkles!

Since getting started with diamond painting, I’ve been trying to explore the various brands. This week, I worked on a great one. Diamond Art Club was kind enough to send me one of their popular Beginner kits, Rose Sheet Music.

I was surprised by how fast this arrived! The kit is entirely self-contained and neatly packed. The back of the box listed the contents as well as how-to instructions.

The canvas is wrapped around the drills and sealed in plastic. It has to be the softest, most supple diamond canvas I’ve felt. I can see why Diamond Art Club claims they have the softest canvas, they really do! I really like the reusable vinyl bag that holds spare drill bags, the tray, wax, and pen. There are some really nice touches here, the pen has 2 ends, one for single drills and one for 3 drills, as well as a squishy grip that made working easy. IMG_5755

Another of those nice touches is a separate strip that lists the symbols, numbers, and DMC numbers of the drills. Because I dislike working from the plastic bags, I sort them into my drill box.

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I wasn’t originally enthused by the thought of this kit. I’ll admit I have a bias, I like large kits because they have better details. I was honestly surprised! This is a really detailed kit for its size. The adhesive is incredibly sticky, but unlike most kits, doesn’t overlap the canvas borders. The inclusion of special sparkly drills made for a nice touch!

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Speaking of nice touches, not only are the symbols nice and clearly labled; but the canvas has scalloped edges and has stitch edging. This means that unlike cheap canvases, this won’t unravel.

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Diamond Art Club has one of the best taglines I’ve heard. Do What Makes You Sparkle™. It’s fantastic! There are few hobbies I’ve found that makes me relax and smile like this one.

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All Done!

My kit came out so pretty! I love the level of detail, and will definitely be ordering from Diamond Art Club again!

DIAMOND PAINTING SPECS

  • Company: Diamond Art Club
  • Title: Rose Sheet Music
  • Artist: Unknown
  • Number of Colors: 23
  • Coverage: Full
  • Finished size: 20x27cm or 8×10.5 inches

QUALITY: 

  • Box: Small, thin and compact, Easy storage
  • Image Quality: Excellent, great color saturation
  • Finish: Glittery without the glitter!
  • Difficulty Level: Beginner
  • Drill Shapes: Round
  • Drill Fit: Excellent

Disability Notes: I found this kit to be extremely easy to work. The colors/symbols were early to read and having the second heart of wax made it easy to not worry about running out.

Diamond Art Club: Website / FaceBook

Where to buy: Diamond Art Club has a large range of paintings and often runs sales and adding new designs. Rose Sheet Music is available for $22.95 USD.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary Diamond Kit from the manufacturer in exchange for review. The opinions are my own. All links are direct, I do not make money from them. All images of Rose Sheet Music are ©DiamondArtClub 2019.

Thanks for reading, and please click the Follow Button under my profile on the right side of the page. To support posts like this in the future, consider joining my Patreon!

Lucky Timing and Diamond Art

Have you ever made a split-second frivolous decision? I’m really glad I made this one!

Just after Christmas last year, My friend Sammi let me know that there were diamond art kits on clearance at our local Walmart. I was laid up due to the weather and SAD, so I asked her to pick one out for me.

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This is a Dazz™ Dimensional Diamond Art™. Dazz™ is made by Horizon Group USA, an arts and crafts company. They were only available at Walmart for a limited amount of time before being discontinued by the company.

This is a partial drill diamond art, meaning that parts of the canvas are printed, and not meant to be covered by gems(AKA drills). Dazz™’s  kit is amazingly well set out! The canvas is bright and large, the drills are well labeled, and the instruction sheet is the best I’ve seen!

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Close up of the canvas

I found the drill chart to be easy to read in daylight, though I struggled when my eyes tired. This is the largest diamond art kit I’ve done to date, measuring 16 by 20 inches. The surface is roughly ¾ covered by drills and so it took me almost 2 weeks to finish.

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So many gems!!!

 

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All Done!!

I’m incredibly happy with how this kit turned out! The colors are vibrant and the drills adhere amazingly well. I’ve done a few kits since being introduced to diamond painting last year, and Dazz™ is ranking right up there as one of the best. I’m going to be framing this, but that post will be on the Patreon.

Please, Horizon Group USA! Bring these back! Or at least send me your discards!

QUALITY: 

  • Box: Small, thin and compact, Easy storage
  • Image Quality: Excellent, great color saturation
  • Finish: Glittery without the glitter!
  • Difficulty Level: Intermediate
  • Gem Shapes: Round
  • Gem Fit: Very Good.

Disability Notes: I can definitely recommend this for a person whose hands have good and bad days. I worked on a lapdesk on the couch, and other than my butt going numb, it was a very comfortable project to work on.

Where to buy: I’m sad to say you can’t, unless you get very lucky on Ebay. I’ve looked. If you were lucky enough to buy one of these last winter, congrats!!

Disclosure: I bought this diamond art kit for review. The opinions are my own. All links are direct, I do not make money from them. All images of Dazz™ Dimensional Diamond Art™ are ©Horizon Group USA 2018.

Thanks for reading, and please click the Follow Button under my profile on the right side of the page. To support posts like this in the future, consider joining my Patreon!

Sparkling Kitty: Reviewing Diamond Art

Like most of you, I have friends I’ve never met in person. Internet buddies, Facebook friends. One of my Facebook friends introduced me to the idea of trying diamond painting. It’s a new and growing craft activity that has much in common with puzzling and cross stitch. So I reached out, being the curious thing that I am, and got in contact with Leisure Arts who had just released a diamond kit line in September.

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I was more than a little amazed by just how much stuff came in this little box!

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All the gems are presorted and labled.

The canvas is done much like a cross-stitch or latch-hook pattern, with color coding and symbols and the key on the side.IMG_4574

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Close up!

I’ll admit to making a few newbie mistakes, for one, I’m a VERY static person, so the plastic gems liked to explode out of their tray. SC ended up having to make me an anti-static band to wear. For two, I thought this would be quick and easy. Haha~! I got that partly right! It was easy once I got into the rhythm, but it was not quick. We’ve had several days of rain here in Virginia, and between my hands trying to gnarl up like I was 70 and basic Fibro grumpiness, this took me 4 days. Yeah… that’s where last Thursday’s post was. I’m a horrible human.

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Zoomie was curious until she touched the sticky stuff!

IMG_4583I have to say, other than the beautiful bruise I formed on my left elbow from leaning on the table too long, I found the whole process to be incredibly meditative. SC got to see me doing the hyper focus thing that happens when I color, so he played video games over my head and we spent time in the same room, doing separate stuff. Don’t let tv lie to you, having different but equal hobbies can be good in a marriage! If SC was home all the time I would go crazy.

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Last step! Using SC’s Grandmother’s rolling-pin to make sure the gems are firmly in place!

 

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I don’t know if you can see it from the picture, but this is a sparkly kitty! I’m definitely adding a few of these kits to my Christmas wishlist!

 

QUALITY: 

  • Box: Small, thin and compact, Easy storage
  • Image Quality: Excellent, great color saturation
  • Finish: Glittery without the glitter!
  • Difficulty Level: Intermediate
  • Gem Shapes: Round
  • Gem Fit: Very Good.

Disability Notes: I can definitely recommend this for a person whose hands have good and bad days. I started this on a good hand day, and the constant rains made my hands swell. Due to the mechanics of the gem-pen, I could easily continue working when my hands hurt, I just took more breaks. It took me 4 days of  good concentration to complete this.

Where to buy: You can buy the White Cat at Leisure Arts’s website for $17.99 USD. Diamond Art by Leisure Arts is available at your local craft stores, like Joann Fabrics and Micheal’s.

Diamond Art by Leisure Arts : Website / FaceBook

Disclosure: I received a complimentary Diamond Kit from the manufacturer in exchange for review. The opinions are my own. All links are direct, I do not make money from them.

Thanks for reading, and please click the Follow Button under my profile on the right side of the page. To support posts like this in the future, consider joining my Patreon!