Trying the Skull Diamond Art Kit by Make Market (Tiny Gems, Big Opinions)
Sometimes you want to create art that looks impressive but doesn’t require mixing paints, sculpting clay, or questioning your life choices halfway through a project. That’s where diamond art comes in — a craft that looks simple on the surface but involves placing a truly impressive number of tiny plastic gems.
This time I decided to try the Skull Diamond Art Kit by Make Market — a sparkly little craft kit that promises a rhinestone-covered skull design with minimal artistic skill required.
Naturally, I had to test it.
Full honesty: as I’m working on this, it’s turning out to be more annoying than relaxing… but at this point I’m committed and I will finish it.
How Diamond Art Works
If you’ve never tried diamond art before, it’s basically like a sparkly version of paint-by-number.
The canvas has a grid covered in letters and symbols. Each symbol corresponds to a specific color of “diamond,” which comes in tiny little bags. To create the design, you match the symbol on the canvas to the numbered bag of diamonds, pour some into the tray, and place them one by one using the pen tool.
Simple concept.
In practice… it can get a little chaotic.
The kit does include small baggies so you can store and organize the diamonds once you open them, which is helpful.
Another thing I noticed is that several of the numbered bags contain diamonds that are nearly identical in color to each other, even though they correspond to different symbols on the canvas. It adds an extra layer of “fun” when you’re already several days into placing tiny gems.
The Case of the Missing Diamonds
While I was sitting there working, I suddenly felt something under my feet.
Ugh.
Turns out it was runaway diamonds. I was very happy I didn’t have carpet, but they were still tiny enough that picking them up by hand wasn’t exactly easy. I ended up grabbing a small dustpan to scoop them up instead.
While cleaning that up, I remembered that one of the baggies had spilled earlier and diamonds had gone everywhere. I thought I had picked them all up at the time, but apparently not.
So yes — these little things will escape, and you will find them later.
First Impressions
When I opened the kit, I was honestly pretty excited. Everything looked organized and beginner-friendly:
- Pre-printed sticky canvas with the skull design
- Tiny “diamond” gems sorted by color
- A tray to hold the pieces
- A pen tool for picking them up
- Wax for the pen
- Small baggies for storing the gems
Seeing the skull design slowly fill in with sparkly diamonds is actually pretty satisfying.
At least at first.
Tiny Diamonds, Big Attitude
No craft kit is perfect, and this one definitely has a few quirks.
The tray moves and makes the diamonds bounce
The tray is lightweight, which means it likes to slide around while you’re working. If it shifts even a little, the diamonds bounce and scatter around the tray, undoing the nice neat rows you just lined up. It’s one of those tiny annoyances that makes you pause and stare at it like, “Really? We’re doing this right now?”
The diamonds are tiny
This isn’t exactly a flaw — it’s just the reality of diamond art — but wow, these things are small. If you sneeze, blink aggressively, or breathe wrong, one will vanish into another dimension.
The pen and wax situation
To pick up the diamonds, you press the pen into a little wax pad so the gems stick to the tip. It works… but you have to keep reloading the wax.
Which means just when you’re getting into a nice crafting groove, you have to pause and stab the wax again like you’re refueling a very small spaceship.
The bag situation gets messy fast
The diamonds come in a bunch of tiny plastic bags, and keeping them organized while you work can be a bit of a pain in the butt. You end up digging through a pile of little bags trying to find the color you need.
Why Is This Taking Days?
Another thing I didn’t expect is how long this project actually takes.
This isn’t something you knock out in one evening. It turns into a multiple-day project… and then somehow a multi-dayS project… and then suddenly you’re questioning your life choices a week in.
Placing tiny diamonds one by one might not sound like it would take that long… but it absolutely does.
And after a while, it starts to feel less like relaxing crafting time and more like a tiny sparkly endurance test.
Would I Do This Again? Absolutely Not.
When I first started the Skull Diamond Art Kit by Make Market, I thought it might be a relaxing little craft project.
That feeling did not last.
Between the bouncing diamonds, constantly reloading the wax, hunting through tiny bags, and the sheer number of little pieces, it became more frustrating than relaxing.
But I stuck with it.
And now…
FINALLY done after 2 long weeks of blood, sweat and tears — ok maybe no blood, but it feels like it.
I am so HAPPY to be done.
Never doing this again.
I happily threw the leftover pieces in the TRASH and did not look back.
