Craft Central

I bought mine from Shein and they were relatively cheap and easy to do. Another cheap place is Aliexpress. The most expensive place to buy them from is Paintsomeway.

Have you heard of these stores before @puppydoglover ? They're all online shops, unfortunately. Can you shop online?

@FearofUnknown Yes, I've heard of Shein. Someone I know buys them from there. I've always been a bit skeptical about purchasing from them but I might take a look to see what they stock.

@FearofUnknown @puppydoglover @Judi9877 and all, these are my latest diamond paintings.

Most of my diamond paintings these days come from Temu as they are cheap. I bought some from eBay before I'd heard of Sheinband Temu but they are almost 3 times more expensive. Shein doesn't have much of a selection lately.

I also have some expensive Diamond Dotz brand paintings that I bought from a store in NSW which has sadly closed down. I will dig the ones I've done out and share later.

Hello @ENKELI @puppydoglover @FearofUnknown @SweetMonster @Shaz51 @Ru-bee @rav3n @tyme @Till23 @DogMan79 and all craft lovers here. What a wonderful lot of forum posts here you’ve all posted! Talk about great collection of different crafts and discussion topics - from knitting to diamond art painting, crochet, rock painting, mindfulness and mental health. I’m very impressed and interested in all of the different discussions that have come up!
I’m sorry for not being around lately - had carer issues and other personal issues I’ve had to deal with. I’m back now and ready to see what things come up here!

@SweetMonster I love your jumper! You are very talented with your knitting. My current jumper using Bendigo Woollen Mills wool in blue, red, yellow and green is nearly completed - just have to finish the sleeve and then do the neck (my least favourite part) and then sew it up. My knitting skills are average - can do the basics plus cables and I can follow some patterns involving knit and purl stitches - but nothing complicated like intarsia knitting or fair isle patterns! You are right when you say that knitting helps with mindfulness and concentration and focus as I know when I’m stressed, focussing on a pattern helps to distract me from my current life issues and is productive for me at the same time. It does also help with adhd as well from the research I’ve read lately.

@puppydoglover Great question you’ve posed on getting diamond art paintings for cheap. I’ve purchased mine from Kmart initially when I first started back in March when I had a PARCS admission where I purchased some coasters and simple kits for under $10. I’ve since discovered the Reject Shop which have also been okay for kits. @ENKELI mentioned Temu, Shein and Aliexpress for kits but I’ve not purchased from them so I don’t know what they’re like. Sometimes Spotlight have kits for sale and I know Lincraft have been clearing their stock so maybe check online for their sales?

@ENKELI Great diamond art paintings! I love the different designs you’ve done and how well they’ve turned out. You really are talented. I’ve just completed a mandala card that I got at the Reject Shop - can’t put a photo up for some reason- and I like how I just had to put the dots on the design and not think about where to put them. It is a very relaxing hobby!

@DogMan79 I saw your art paintings on Craft Corner . Great job! This is a new discussion thread I’ve set up so feel free to post your designs here if you choose to do so. Art therapy is very important in mental health and mental health recovery as it gives people a way of expressing themselves in ways other than words which can be very beneficial in healing and understanding what is happening to the person at a specific time in their lives. I know when I was in hospital in 2021, I had a bad experience with a member of staff and chose to draw my emotions out on paper which really helped me as I was able to choose colours and a design which represented how I was feeling and what I was going through at that moment in time. It also helped to calm myself down and regulate my emotions through the process of thinking about what to draw and the colours to colour in the design using pencils, textas and crayons. Even now, I still have a pencil case full of textas, crayons and pencils located in my self care box along with an art diary should I feel the need to want to draw and release my emotions in a safe yet creative way.

@FearofUnknown Great points you’ve raised in relation to different crafts you’ve tried and worked on. Well done! Maybe you can post some of your creations? Knitting and crochet are my main hobbies and I like being creative with different coloured wool and types of wool.

@Till23 @Ru-bee @rav3n I’d love to see your beanies if you choose to do them using my pattern in the Sane Voices Newsletter Edition 2. I’ve been on a beanie knitting spree the past week thanks to feeling stressed in my personal life and have been knitting both adult and baby beanies to help me with my mental health issues

As for what I’ve been working on lately:

- I’ve been working on some crochet granny squares which I’ve since learned how to join and sew up thanks to a video from the internet. I was able to recycle an old lot of squares into a blanket for charity which I was initially going to make up as a cardigan which I got bored of so that was a great idea of mine.
- I knitted a baby cardigan for charity after trying out a pattern and I’ve since learnt that it is the perfect size for my housemates toy rabbit from Build a Bear Workshop so she now wants me to knit her rabbit a cardigan using pink wool from Spotlight which I plan to do once she purchases the wool from Spotlight tomorrow which is currently on sale.
- I’m still working on my clown fish cross stitch bookmark with the aim to complete it by the end of the week. I’ve since found a new turtle cross stitch bookmark pattern so I’m planning on purchasing the cottons and fabric shortly to be able to start stitching it soon. The clown fish bookmark reminds me of the clown fish I saw at the Cairns Aquarium when I visited there on my cruise ship holiday back in June along with seeing the turtle hospital which is why I want to stitch it next. Hopefully I can post a picture when it’s done of the finished clown fish bookmark.

Keep on enjoying your art and craft hobbies!

Take care!

Judi9877

Hey @Judi9877 ,

Thanks for sharing! I saw your article in SANE Voices! Love it! Pretty amazing work there. It sounds like you are keeping yourself busy.

The craft you are engaging in is so therapeutic. Just the repetitive motion can be so grounding. I just finished a lego titanic. I loved it but it was so hard and fidley. It took me three days and i finally finished it.

Hope you are well!

@Judi9877 I like doing diamond art for the same reason - you just put the colours where they are supposed to go.

I will go through phases where I'll do three or four in one time, then I'll have a break and do something else. I have no consistency with my hobbies lol!

Hello @Judi9877

I have found that by emailing myself the pictures and put them as large and not actual size, save them to my photos and then they will post without being to large for forums to accept.

I hope that helps.

I do a lot of diamond art. I have pictures of one of my dogs and a picture of one of mums dogs. The one I’m doing currently is the last picture of my dog and mums dog together before mums dog passed. I havent done any of it in months though. They take me several months to complete. They are quite large and are full drills. I’ve run out of space for stuff. I have resin stuff that I’m working on, on my dining room table and I have Lego on the go on my kitchen bench. Plus a 3D puzzle next to the Lego. I just need more space!

Here’s some of the diamond art, resin and mosaic that I’ve done

Making a funky rainbow beaded bracelet on a loom 🌈

Relaxing on my bed whilst making it.