Diamond Art for Christmas: fast and fun gift

If you are like me, you have a long list of Christmas gifts to make before the Holidays. I am always looking for ideas… I found I can make a fast and fun Christmas gift using Diamond Art.

[Edited June 6, 2020]

I finished the Snowman (Leisure Arts sold out of them, but you can still find them at Amazon if you rush!) as a gift for my two grandsons. It is quite possible it will stay on the wall in their bedroom all year long as I know they will love seeing its smile. The farther you are, the more beautiful it looks as you can discern the details of the knitted scarf and hat.

I purchased a 12″ x 12″ frame, removed the matting, trimmed the Diamond Art and placed it in the frame. The black makes the Snowman stand out, don’t you agree?

Everything I needed was inside this box: the printed fabric, the gems separated by color, the stylus I use to apply the gems to the fabric, the little tray, the wax (so you can dip the tip of the stylus in, to help it grab the gems easily), the comfort grip for the stylus, a bunch of self-closing baggies, and the instructions.

The instructions are easy to understand. You read it once and you are done because the learning curve for this craft is … well, there is no learning curve!

The leftover gems are saved in the little baggies. When I finish a project, I save them all because I may need them again as a replacement for dropped ones or to create my own designs (I haven’t figured out that part yet but it would be super fun to attempt it).

After I use the wax, I immediately put the lid on it to keep it from drying out. Also, as the instructions suggest, I wrap the stylus with plastic wrap so the wax on its tip won’t dry out either.

The angel – my first Diamond Art project – is so elegant… Two finished, I don’t know how many more to go. As they make fantastic gifts, I am thinking I should make one for each of my nieces in Brazil, and perhaps a couple more Christmas-themed ones.

I prefer to work on the Diamond Art projects after dinner as it helps me unwind. I love making, designing, and writing about quilts. Yet, I find that after I do something else I am able to solve pesky pattern challenges, come up with designs for challenging fabric collections, and to determine where I need to focus next on my quilting business. It is as if I were at a retreat: listening to a fun book while gluing the gems onto the fabric. Do you agree with me that I found a way to make a fast and fun Christmas gift using Diamond Art?

My family loves this craft. I found this one on the Leisure Arts website and am IN LOVE! The kit is called Rainy Day. Those bright colors are the antidote to the rainy and gray days of Autumn and would be awesome in my office. Or in the family room. Or in my bedroom. Ai…

Take a look at the quilts I design and you will notice I love bright colors. Sure, I’ve designed more subdued projects, but if I could choose I would always work with batiks or any other fabric saturated with colors. This is likely the reason why Rainy Day appeals to me so much.

So, stay tuned for the next project. In the meantime, I am off to Quilt Market in Houston, Texas. See you next week!