Hello lovelies!
At last, I’m able to post a new review. As I explained on my Facebook page, it’s been a busy, difficult and bad 2016 for me, so I had to stop posting, though I created a list with some ideas, so that I could write them when the time was right. So, that time has come!
Today, I want to talk about a cool craft that I just discovered some months ago. It’s called “Diamond painting” or “Rhinestones cross stitch”. When I was a teenager, I used to do cross stitch, it helped me focus and stay calm, specially when exams were around, and, in addition, the result was really nice I must say. I have never considered cross stitch a “grandma” craft, though I’m aware than some people do.
So, lately I have been surfing Aliexpress a lot (I will post a mega haul soon :D), and I accidentally discovered this new version of cross stitch. The idea is similar to that of cross stitch: you select a photo (it can be a pre-made photo or picture or a custom-made one), they create the pattern for you, with instructions of which color should go in every square, and they provide you with little shiny square rhinestones instead of cross stitch threads. You can also find some sellers provide round instead of square-shaped rhinestones, but I don’t think the result is the same, as you won’t fill the squares as with square-shaped rhinestones.
I haven’t found this type of craft anywhere else, maybe some sellers sell it on Ebay too, but I think it’s more widely spread on Aliexpress. Here you can see some examples of how the original photo looks and how it ends up looking after finishing it (I don’t own any of the following pictures, they are here only for me to show you how they look):
You can see they look really cool, specially with bright-colored pictures, though the custom-made ones are cute too, just don’t expect your photo to look exactly like the original, because the rhinestone colors are limited, but the same happens with thread colors in the classic cross stitch.
Seeing that it was cool and I could have fun with this craft, I decided to buy two sets. One as a gift for my mother (Christmas is nearly here! :)), which features a lovely lady in a beautiful landscape (pre-made), and another one which features my boyfriend and me (custom-made from a photo). Both were bought from different sellers, but the general presentation is the same: for relatively big designs (over 40x50cm), Aliexpress sellers send you a rectangular box (smaller ones usually come in a bag) containing the pattern covered with a sticky surface and with the color and symbol guide, a little rhinestones tray, a pencil tool, some twizzers and a special “glue” to put in the pencil, thus helping rhinestones to stick to it. Both arrived in good conditions, with plenty of rhinestones from every color (both sellers included more rhinestones than necessary, which I am grateful for) and the design is cool. The pattern comes covered with a special papel (like the one in stickers), so you can rip bits of it as you progress in the image.
This is what it looks like when you receive it:
And this is what you will find inside:
I am currently just starting the custom-made one (just made a corner, because it’s pretty big), which will be my 8th anniversary gift for my boyfriend 🙂 and I think it looks pretty good, let’s see how it looks when it is finished.
I can’t still tell how the other one will look, as it is a gift for my mother, but I like it so much that I think in the future I will get myself that design too. This is the design I chose for my mother’s gift:
I’m including the links of the two products in case you are interested. You can check their other items. In my case, the service of these two sellers was good, I hope it is for you too if you decide to try this craft. There are many other sellers too. My recommendations if you want to try Diamond Paintings are that you should always choose a pattern over 30x40cm, 40x50cm or bigger would be even better (with exception of very small pictures), and it’s safer to choose bright-colored pictures or pictures with lots of contrast. In addition, feedback and photos from buyers help a lot too. Here are the links to the ones I ordered:
Beautiful lady in landscape:
Custom-made pictures:
Thanks for reading and please forgive my long silence!
In addition, for those of you who are new to my blog, I have also created a Facebook page in case you would like to like it and follow my blog post there: https://www.facebook.com/kawaiimakeupfashion?fref=ts
We have just reached 50 likes, thanks to everyone!!! 🙂 Lots of love and stay kawaii!
Kawaii Makeup & Fashion 