I have a few round WIPs and a few in my "stock" but I recently did a square kit and fell in love. I want to grab a few to have in my stock, so I can work on them whenever.
Issue is, I'm a disabled college student. So money is TIGHT. Being entirely honest, I don't think I've spent more than $12 on a kit so far. And especially if I'm hoping to buy multiple, I can't really afford to spend more than that right now. I've heard though that with squares it's a lot bigger of a deal if there's trash drills, canvas sizing issues, etc. And I don't want to get part way through a kit and just be constantly having issues.
So I'm looking for specific brand/manufacturer recommendations. Either on Temu, Aliexpress, Amazon, or wherever else. Places that have a reputation for having nice quality square drill kits for really good prices. Bonus points if you know they usually use letters/numbers instead of symbols. Extra bonus points for brands that also do square customs for good prices.
I don't need or want any fancy AB drills or whatever, or massive sizes. I'd prefer no AI, but understand that's probably out of my budget right now. I especially like anything with animals (poodles & calicos especially), mid-century modern or retro styles, plants/flowers, geese/ducks, or groovy/disco.
(Photo of my dog laying on my lap, distracting me from doing diamond painting, so this post doesn't get lost lol)
I’m partial to Huacan pieces that I can find on Amazon for $10 ish. But a lot of folks don’t like that they’re double sided tape vs poured glue. I find it easier to place drills with less sliding than the DAC kits though. I did one butterfly with AB’s that completely hooked me
I'm going to be completely honest, I have no idea how to tell the difference between double sided tape vs poured glue. As long as the drills stick, it's good with me. 😂 I'll put Huacan on my list!
I didn’t know until I posted/commented about the fact that Huacan comes covered in strips of white non stick sheets instead of plastic. Apparently that’s a dead giveaway, but regardless I found the Huacan kits to be higher quality than others I tried from various places. They’re also why I started using tweezers for placing because they send nice sets along.
I'm going to guess then that all of mine are whatever the other option is because all of them have had the clear plastic sheet. (At least as far as I remember lol)
I've had good luck with the clear plastic sheets. Easy to place square drills. I also like the clear because I can see what I'm doing and where I'm going.
They are good, I bought one for my work friend and she loved it. She did say it was a little harder to do than round, but I think most people find it that way unless they start out on square drills.
I find squares so much easier! They self-correct so I don't spend the entire time hyper-focusing on things being off center by tiny little bits. The gaps on rounds drives me crazy lol
I don't mind it too much, they generally get framed and given to people and the father away you are the better they look lol! I do like less gapping, but I started out with cheap small round diamond paintings that took me less time to do. Now I'm doing bigger paintings, that take forever and are a mix of round and square. If you don't mind buying off Temu they also have some good paintings. This one was Temu and I just cut off the weird edge they made around the painting, it also had fairydust, crystal and ab square drills.
I've only given one away so far. I mostly do them for the process, not the finished product, so the gaps in rounds just bother me the entire time I work 😭 I've had some kits where they're close enough together that it's not as big of a deal, but some practically have a border around each drill. 😂
I have a question, please. I have a couple from them. So, when I'm working on my canvases, I roll them drill side out, when I want to put it away. I've read that you can't do that with double sided tape - that you can't roll the opposite way.
So, how do you roll up your in-progress/finished kits?
I generally don’t roll them as I have the space to leave them flat. Some in a portfolio and others just in a stack. But when I have I tend to experience about the same chance of drills popping than DAC. I do them to busy my mind and hands, though, so most I’ve passed on to my brother’s wife who runs the craft show circuit.
Michaels has some square kits in their Make Market brand, and with coupons, the prices are very reasonable, but tbh, their square drills do not hold a candle to Diamond Art Club or other premium brands. Very annoying to work with, and gappy. Their round kits are great, though. ;)
What makes them annoying? And what does gappy mean?
The one I've done previously had a LOT of trash drills, but there were so many extra, I still had plenty for finishing the kit without worry. I would get more from the same brand, but they only have the one square design that's ever in stock.
I can't wait until I can afford DAC/Premium brands, but for right now, I just can't justify the price for how long they would take me to complete. 😭
Gappy means that they tend to be too small to fit snugly together on the canvas, leading to gaps where the canvas underneath is visible, and they're harder to get straight placement with
I did my first diamond painting kit because it was a gift, and I somewhat enjoyed it.
Then I found a local craft booth that had a poodle one.... after that one I was addicted.
So I also blame my poodle for getting me into diamond painting! 😂
I jokingly call her my "muse" because like 80% of my craft projects are for her, because of her, or are related to her in some way. I've even started grooming her myself, and we started taking classes so I can show her at Dog Shows next spring. My wallet is CRYING. 😭😂😭
She is beautiful 😍. I noticed the banding and wondered if she was a show dog. Mine is a goober and definitely not show quality haha. I also groom mine. I would do a poodle diamond painting! Thanks!
Not a show dog yet, and tbh not show quality. But I want to get into showing, she is eligible, and I know she would enjoy it, so we're going to give it a try. Not expecting to win anything big, just to have fun and learn something new. I've been banding her for fun though since she was like 4 months old 😂
You should definitely give Diamond Painting a try! It's really relaxing imo. And it doesn't require a ton of supplies to get into. Of course there's plenty of optional supplies, but the bare basics come with the kits already.
Perks of doing Diamond Painting with a poodle, you don't have to worry as much about dog hair getting stuck in the adhesive! 🤣
i honestly like the forever young minigem kits. im working on the seasons one from them right now and they’re square drills. i only paid 19.49 for 12 of them and it comes with almost 80 drills so i think it’s a good price.
I mean, it doesn't have to be HIGH quality. Just looking for ones that have a better reputation for having enough drills of acceptable quality. I'm not looking for fancy with all the bells and whistles, just looking for functional.
The one I got previously was around $6-8, and it had quite a few trash drills, but they sent so many extra that I still had enough to finish the kit just fine. Unfortunately that brand only has the one square kit that's actually ever in stock, so I can't get more from them.
I know that when asking for cheaper kits, I won't have as many options for pictures, and also know that there's going to be annoying aspects I'll have to deal with. I just don't want to buy one that part way through I realize is impossible to finish and I entirely wasted my money.
I don't mind spending a few extra bucks per kit if they have a good reputation in terms of quality, or for a picture that I especially like, but I just can't afford $20-$30 for a kit that's like 20×20cm.
I mean, it doesn't have to be HIGH quality. Just looking for ones that have a better reputation for having enough drills of acceptable quality. I'm not looking for fancy with all the bells and whistles, just looking for functional.
The one I got previously was around $6-8, and it had quite a few trash drills, but they sent so many extra that I still had enough to finish the kit just fine. Unfortunately that brand only has the one square kit that's actually ever in stock, so I can't get more from them.
I know that when asking for cheaper kits, I won't have as many options for pictures, and also know that there's going to be annoying aspects I'll have to deal with. I just don't want to buy one that part way through I realize is impossible to finish and I entirely wasted my money.
I don't mind spending a few extra bucks per kit if they have a good reputation in terms of quality, or for a picture that I especially like, but I just can't afford $20-$30 for a kit that's like 20×20cm.
I definitely get nervous sometimes that the cheap price is going to mean it's just horrendous quality. And sometimes the reviews are like "I bought this for my kid. They haven't started yet. Looks great. 5 stars!" which doesn't help at all in terms of if the quality is actually good or not 😭
I agree. And I’ve never left a review because their system is messed up. They want you to review the product, whatever you buy, in a few days. So basically their reviews are “great packaging, wasn’t damaged” 🤣 But I’ve bought from those 3 companies and more and haven’t had an issue. Bit I’ve also never bought “high quality “ because it’s out of my price range like you. But I have never had a problem. Their quality is definitely better than cheap Amazon kits. I know that much.
I'm so bad at remembering to leave reviews tbh 😂 And they always prompt like 5 minutes after you get the product, so all I could say would be "I mean, it's here?" 😂😂
Good to know about the cheap Amazon quality though!
I just found this on AliExpress: | Huacan 5D DIY Diamond Painting Girl Portrait Full Mosaic Art Hobby Home Living room Wall Decoration https://a.aliexpress.com/_mKwRizv
Temu has less square manufacturers on there, so they are harder to find, especially if you are shopping via the promos. They tend to skew heavily to rounds and partial drill canvases.
Make Market squares from Michaels are my favorite local producers.
My local diamond art friends asked me to do a list for our crew of all the storefronts on AliExpress that I've had good experiences with but its not quite done to share on here quite yet.
The big problem is that a lot of the budget folks are doing what's called image scraping - using bots to pull images from social media sites and then producing them into kits. Which lead to lower quality renders and a lot of the weird photo artifacts.
The ones more on the up and up have switched to genAI for the larger catalogs, so every image needs to scrutinized closely for artifacting and features that don't quite make sense.
With that said, I think you would be most happy if you are AliExpress shopping with my favorite Yiwu region producers: it used to be a quintet but one went rogue, so now its the 4 of them: Shine AB, RhineArt AB, Shine Fairy Dust Store, and MTDIYArt (you'll also see the name of the fifth "DuePlay" in some of their images - its not stolen art, they used to all work together).
Huacan I saw mentioned below - they have good quality on many of their pieces but you have to shop VERY carefully with them. They have had stolen artwork issues in the past, and there have been some image scraping. I buy their stuff, but I always reverse image search before hand to see if its stolen or not.
In terms of customs, hands down, Ever Moment is the best on AliExpress. They're on my yes list for that reason - just don't buy their stock pieces, they have had just as many stolen art issues as Huacan.
Are there Red flags to look for in terms of art being stolen? Or is reverse image searching the only option? How do I know that the things that pop up are the original vs they stole from the store I'm looking at?
I have spent a small fortune with Diamond Art Club this year, and the qualities unparalleled. But I did buy a few square kits from a AliExpress shop called Shine AB DP Store, and they are excellent dupes. They also come with special drills like AB and Fairy Dust diamonds.
I haven't gone back on their site to see how much they are now, because they do ship from China. So export and fuel cost are going to drive up the price. However, it's all rolled into the price of the kit so you don't pay a separate duty.
I am very impressed with the kits from AliExpress. I just finished a very large kit from Diamond Art Club and the AliExpress actually has less gaps. My only thing is they are supposed to be resin drills but I don't like how some are matte while some are glossy, but I'm wondering if that's just the aesthetic of the kit I bought.
I thought that the matte could be acrylic but I could definitely be wrong. Acrylic seem like they are easily damaged if you are a hard presser, like me. I like Shine AB DP Store and EverMoment, but the latter is very expensive al mm ost like DAC.
Something to think about is cost per inch or cost per hour. My current DAC square drill is going to be about 200 hours of entertainment for 80.00. They seem expensive until you break down the cost. That works out to 0.40 per hour. Sometimes people don’t realize the size of DAC.
I just got in to diamond painting and also have a poodle! I can’t speak to the quality yet but I got a customized kit off Amazon (brand is Rainsar and cost less than $13). You can pick square or round).
Here’s the photo I’m going to attempt of my poodle!
I recomend just searching square diamond paintings in amazon, you will find cheap options. I use pounds so I'm not sure what the exact equivelant is but you get cheap ones.
I buy mine from AliExpress. The store I like the best there is QXT Craft Store. The canvases are nice, the drills are nice. They have a sheet with the ledger on it instead of only on the canvas. I’ve been really impressed with them. Especially being less than $5. They also have free shipping if you spend $10 or more.
AMAZON!! you just gotta make sure they aren’t AI. i used to buy mine on amazon when money was tight and they turned out good!! some will look a little wrong but it’s the love of the game!
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u/DigInevitable1679 5d ago
I’m partial to Huacan pieces that I can find on Amazon for $10 ish. But a lot of folks don’t like that they’re double sided tape vs poured glue. I find it easier to place drills with less sliding than the DAC kits though. I did one butterfly with AB’s that completely hooked me