Diamond Painting 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Your First Canvas

Welcome to the wonderful, sparkling world of diamond painting! If you have just received your first kit and are wondering where to begin, you are in the right place. Diamond painting is essentially a mix of cross-stitch and paint-by-numbers, but instead of using thread or paint, you apply tiny, shimmering resin “drills” (diamonds) to an adhesive canvas.

Here is a quick breakdown to get you started on your very first masterpiece.

Unboxing Your Kit When you open your kit, you will find everything you need to complete the project. A standard kit includes:

• A pre-printed, high-definition adhesive canvas.

• Packs of colored resin diamonds.

• A grooved sorting tray.

• An applicator pen.

• A small square of pink wax.

Understanding the Canvas Symbols Take a look at your canvas. You will see it is covered in small grid squares, each containing a symbol, letter, or number. These correspond to a legend printed right on the edge of the canvas. To start, pick a symbol on the canvas, find it on the legend, and locate the matching bag of colored diamonds. Pour a small amount of those diamonds into your grooved tray and give it a gentle shake side-to-side so the diamonds flip right-side up.

Loading Your Applicator Pen To pick up the diamonds, you need to prep your applicator pen. Peel back the clear protective film on the small square of pink wax. Press the hollow metal tip of your applicator pen firmly into the wax until the tip is full. This wax acts as a slight adhesive, allowing you to easily pick up the diamonds from the tray.

Placing Your Drills Peel back a small section of the protective plastic cover on your canvas (never peel the whole thing off at once, or the canvas will lose its stickiness!). Gently tap the wax-filled tip of your pen to the rounded top of a diamond in your tray. Then, press the diamond onto its corresponding symbol on the sticky canvas.

Repeat this process, and watch your sparkling artwork come to life!