Day: May 17, 2025

A new craft to relax

On By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I don’t know exactly how long diamond painting has been a thing, but I’ve avoided it because holy cow, I have way too many crafts already that I just don’t really want MORE craft supplies taking up space in my bedroom. It’s already overwhelming with all the plastic lanyard, yarn, a huge box of plastic canvas, drawers and drawers of cardstock for my box cards and all of the many things I need to make the box cards look cool, like inks and rhinestones and whatever else lol. I have a lot of things taking up so much space in my room, I just didn’t want to add to it.

So I was watching TikTok and some videos about diamond painting started appearing on my FYP, and I sat there watching them the whole way through, because they were interesting to watch. But then more videos started appearing, and live creators were making these live on TikTok, and suddenly my FYP started changing to mostly diamond paintings. Oops.

Mysterious Starry Sky

Someone had a diamond painting with the Starry Sky painting with the TARDIS from Doctor Who, so that got me really interested, because I had assumed they only came in whatever you found at the craft store. I didn’t realize they had so many different images to choose from. So I bought this one from Amazon and made it, and this is what it looks like after I added all the diamond drills.

You tend to lose a lot of details when they are as small as this. This particular one is 12″ x 12″, which I discovered is actually the size of the actual canvas, and not the image. The actual image is more like 11.8″ x 11.8″. Which is fine because I think how it works is you buy the 12×12 frame and it has one of those borders that covers up the outside of the canvas, so you’ll see the actual image you made with the diamonds.

I bought this and another on Amazon and then I found some on Temu, because of course I did lol. I found another one similar to this, but much bigger. This is the image, but I won’t know how the end product looks until I make it.

I really do like this, and it is relaxing. However, it is frustrating because no matter how hard I try, I just cannot get the diamond drills in the actual spot they are meant to go on, so they start looking crooked and the diamond drills are all over the place and look like I just slapped it together in a hurry. I have a tool that I bought that has a thing that you can slide through between the diamond drills that’s supposed to keep adjusting them so they are straight, or more uniform, but that doesn’t actually work too well. You move them and they move right back.

I was watching another video on TikTok and this person had this stainless steel alignment ruler that you lay on the canvas and you put your diamond drills on, and it puts them in the exact place you need them to be, and they don’t move when you remove the stainless steel alignment ruler.

The entire left side of this new diamond painting called the Tree of Life that I started making that goes all the way to the top, I did that without the tool, because I saw the TikTok video after I did all that. So the right side that doesn’t go all the way to the top was made with the stainless steel alignment ruler which is to the right of that, if you can see it. If you are able to zoom in, you will notice a huge difference in how uniform they are in the new section with the metal tool as opposed to how wonky they are on the left side.

I couldn’t justify removing all those diamond drills on the left that I made before I got the new alignment ruler because to be honest, you won’t really notice it when the entire diamond painting is finished. You’ll probably only notice because I told you. The canvas of this diamond painting is going to be 35.4″ wide by 12″ high, but the actual painting will be determined when I finish because the Amazon listing did not specify the actual image size, only the canvas size. But this is what the image is on the listing.

BOHADIY DIY 5D Tree of Life Diamond Painting

So what I discovered is this is really relaxing because I am so focused on this and not on anything else. All my tics mostly disappear, and I lose myself in the art work. I can relax and just lose myself for a few hours or whatever amount of time I decide to spend before my neck or back starts to hurt. I usually have either music or a YouTube video playing on the TV that I’m kind of paying attention to, but not really lol.

And of course the tools they include in the painting kit are ok, but you really want to buy some other tools. For example, I’ve learned you want to buy the little release paper sheets to cover the sticky parts rather than have a long thin piece of plastic hanging off the canvas. It reveals small sections to work on so the sticky parts don’t start getting dust and hair on them before they get the diamond drills. You’ll want a new pen tool with the different attachments that screw on that give you the ability to pick up 1 diamond drill at a time, or 2, on one end, and then whatever amount up to 10 on the other end. I haven’t had so much luck with picking up too many because they are never close together when I pick them up, or the wax is stuck inside, so I only get half of what I was trying to pick up. It’s a learning process. It’s also relaxing to just do 1 at a time. It takes longer though lol.

This wonderful stainless steel alignment tool. Oh and they give you these little ziplock bags that are supposed to hold the diamond drills, but I’m told they will add a lot of static to the diamond drills. I bought a diamond painting storage container that has all these little boxes that are very similar to tic tac boxes. You add the diamond drills and add a sticker to the top with the DMC number on it, and it keeps them all together and safe in the organizer box.

ARTDOT Diamond Painting Storage Container

I had so many diamond drills leftover from the Mysterious Starry Sky painting with the TARDIS that I am just keeping them in their containers, so when I opened all the diamond drill bags for the Tree of Life I’m making now, I’ve pretty much used most of all the rest of the containers. I think I need to buy another box of these containers before I start making more paintings.

Oh and one thing that is really helpful is to have a light box under the painting, because it allows you to see everything much easier. Not just the numbers or letters or symbols, but you can also see the mistakes you’ve made so you can fix them. Amazon has this TOHETO A4 Light Board for Diamond Painting that is 14″ x 10″ for only $20. I have a Cricut Bright Pad that costs $70 on Amazon. I actually got this for free at Michaels when I got my first Cricut. It’s been collecting dust for more than 5 years. I haven’t had a reason to use this until now.

I’m sure there are more tools that I don’t know about yet, but I’ll continue researching products. This is a cool new craft that will actually add something nice to the walls of my bedroom when I finish.

Oh and yes, this has a lot of Amazon links and I have included my associates codes, but I assure you that this is not a sponsored post. I just wanted to talk about this new craft of mine and share the links for the products I have bought. I couldn’t include the Temu links because all of the products I have brought from Temu aren’t even available anymore.

Update: I’ve finished making the Rainbow Tree of Life diamond painting, and here it is.

Oh, yeah, the tics discussion again

On By Michel McDonaldIn Health, UncategorizedLeave a comment

In my previous blog post, I talked about my tics. To be frank, I think people thought I was tweaking, like I was on drugs, because if I saw someone walking around constantly moving their head the way I was, I would definitely say that guy is on something. And I did see many people look at me like they might call the security guard until they realize I’m actually somewhat normal, just someone with tics.

In my previous post I said Music calms the tics. I started listening to music and sitting still like I was meditating. I closed my eyes and relaxed and just listened to the music. Well, it did a lot of calming and I did manage to calm that particular troublesome tic by a lot, however, it wasn’t completely gone. When I caught myself, I would straighten my head out and just say stop, sometimes out loud.

Enchanted Cottage here in Bakersfield had a craft faire on March 22nd, and I NEEDED to get rid of that tic because the last thing I needed was to be sitting at my booth looking like an absolute tweaker. So I worked hard on stopping. The day of the craft faire, I believe it slipped out a few times, but I sat at my table, and I was so distracted by all the people who were there either as vendors or customers that I hardly even noticed if I even did it. I mean, I usually always know that I’m doing it when I’m doing it, and I was able to stop myself before it got bad, and I’d make it look like I was cracking my neck or something lol.

So here I am sitting at my booth with all my buttons in bowls and button box sets in the wooden displays and bracelets in the middle. I even had my keychains on the table in the very front on both sides. I also had all my box cards in a box under the table because there wasn’t really any room for them. I did mention them to people. I let them see the pictures in my catalog and I even brought out a couple to show how they look. People really liked my booth and I had a really good time.

Ok so getting back to the tics lol. If you have tics, you know they either evolve, or they change to something else, and if you see sometime else with tics, you’ll probably adopt their tic. Well, they changed to eye blinking, but also the neck thing occasionally. It’s back and forth. I’ve had this issue all my life and I’m about to turn 55 and I just don’t see them going away any time soon, beyond a miracle. I just have to deal with it and people have to deal with the fact that some people have Tourette syndrome in many different forms, and there’s nothing they or anyone else can do to change it.

I’ve been listening to the music I listened to as a teenager. Recently I’ve been listening to the Chicago 17 album on Google music, which I haven’t listened to since the 80’s, and shockingly, I remember all the lyrics, even the ones I thought were something else lol. After that album ends, a playlist will start with all of the hits from the 80’s in the same genre, which is cool because it really brings me back in time. That music seems to calm me down a bit more than anything recent, probably because it’s mostly ballads.

Ok, so I just wanted to give an update on my progress. It isn’t going to go away, like ever, but I’ll always hope it’s something not too noticeable to make me look too strange.