Complete-The-Picture Magnetic Letter Match

Diamond painting - Use a hand tool to attach small diamonds to a sticky canvas.

The newest craft craze around here is Diamond Painting. I noticed it first at Michael's Craft Store about a year ago. It took Hobby Lobby months to get them in, but you can get a few there now too. Amazon has lots and lots of them. This craft will require a steady hand, good vision, figure ground skill, ability to match a pattern to a key and close work. The Diamond Dotz brand is expensive and you can get them cheaper on Amazon by searching under diamond painting.

The canvas is a very sticky surface. You will get multiple different small bags, each a different color of diamonds, and each will have a number stamped on it. The canvas has a grid of many small boxes printed on it. Each box has a symbol, letter or number in it. Down the side of the canvas is printed a key that will show you each symbol/letter/number and the bag number it corresponds to. You will put that color of diamond on that spot. The diamonds are really half diamonds so that they sit flat on the canvas. They are tiny, plastic and multi faceted, so when you look at your work under a light the diamonds really sparkle. 

Also included is a pencil-type tool and a little square of wax. Push the tool tip into the wax and then touch it to the top of a diamond. The wax will make the diamond stick to the tool. Then place the diamond on a corresponding box on the canvas. Because the canvas surface is so sticky, the diamond will stay in place where you put it. Do this over and over until the picture is complete. Some of the canvases are completely covered with diamonds, other pictures feature only certain objects that will be covered by diamonds and the rest of the canvas is printed. The words "full drill" in the description is supposed to mean that the entire canvas will be covered with diamonds.

Left: The canvas showing the grid on the entire surface - full drill. It does not show the symbols in the boxes.       Right: The original picture. This one turned out beautiful.

I work with a few kids that are absolutely hooked on this craft. I have kids from both level ASD2 and ASD3 who love it. I tried it myself and found it tedious, in part because my eyes are not good enough to see the symbols in the small boxes from a distance. I guess that just comes with age. :( 


Work on visual discrimination, eye-hand coordination, figure ground, manual dexterity, fine motor precision, tool use, executive functioning skills, play and leisure exploration and participation

If you're interested in checking it out further, click on the image below.