Ordering a custom diamond painting kit is easier than you might think. You upload a photo, choose your canvas size and drill type, and a specialised team converts your image into a detailed, symbol-mapped canvas, complete with all the colour-matched drills you'll need to recreate it in sparkling resin.

The conversion process uses advanced software to analyse your photo's colours, contrasts, and details. It breaks the image down into a grid of tiny squares, each assigned a specific drill colour. The more squares (and the larger the canvas), the more detail the finished piece captures.

Your kit arrives with everything included: the printed adhesive canvas, sorted drills in labelled bags, an applicator pen, wax, a tray, and a colour chart matching each symbol to its drill bag. It's the same complete kit experience as any custom diamond painting, just built around your personal image.

The result? A one-of-a-kind piece of art that nobody else in the world has. Your pet, your wedding day, your favourite holiday snap, your grandmother's portrait, turned into something you crafted with your own hands and can display with genuine pride.

This is the single most important step. The quality and characteristics of your photo directly determine how stunning your finished piece will look. Here's what to aim for.

Resolution Matters

Use the highest-resolution photo you have. A crisp, clear image translates into a crisp, clear canvas. Blurry, pixelated, or heavily compressed images lose detail in the conversion process, and the finished piece can look muddy. As a general rule, if you can print the photo at A4 size and it still looks sharp, it's good enough for a custom kit.

Contrast Is Your Friend

Photos with strong contrast between the subject and the background produce the most striking diamond paintings. A dark-haired pet against a light background, a bride in white against a green garden, a sunset with vivid oranges against a deep blue sky — these all translate beautifully.

Photos where everything is a similar tone (a grey cat on a grey couch, for example) can still work, but they'll look more subtle and may require a larger canvas size to capture the nuances.

Composition and Cropping

Simple compositions work best. One or two main subjects filling most of the frame will always produce a better result than a busy group photo where everyone is tiny. If your photo has a lot of background clutter, crop it down to focus on what matters before uploading.

Lighting

Well-lit photos with natural, even lighting give the best results. Harsh shadows, camera flash, or very dark photos can create odd-looking areas in the finished diamond painting. If you have multiple versions of a photo, choose the one with the most natural, flattering light.

Size matters more with custom kits than with pre-designed ones. A stock design is optimised for its specific canvas size, but your custom photo needs enough surface area to capture its unique details.

Our recommendation: When in doubt, go one size up. You can always display a larger piece, but you can't add detail to a canvas that's too small. The most common regret with custom kits is choosing too small a size.

Both drill types work beautifully for custom kits, but each has strengths worth considering.

For custom portrait work, faces, eyes, expressions , square drills generally produce a sharper, more photo-realistic result because there are no gaps breaking up the image. If you're newer to diamond painting or prefer a more relaxed crafting experience, round drills are the way to go. For more guidance on technique, see our tips and tricks article.

Unlike stock kits that ship immediately, custom diamond painting kits require production time because your canvas is being created specifically for you.

Typical turnaround looks like this:

1. Order and upload, You place your order and upload your chosen photo.
2. Image processing — The team reviews your photo, optimises it for diamond painting, and generates the canvas design. This usually takes 1-3 business days.
3. Production, Your canvas is printed, drills are sorted and packaged, and the kit is assembled. Allow 3-7 business days depending on complexity and size.
4. Shipping, Standard shipping times apply from the production facility to your door.

In total, expect roughly 2-4 weeks from order to delivery. If you're ordering a custom kit as a gift, plan ahead — especially during busy holiday periods when production queues are longer.

A custom diamond painting kit makes one of the most thoughtful, personal gifts you can give. Here are some ideas that never fail to delight.

• Send the original photo. Don't screenshot a photo from social media — the compression destroys quality. Send the original file directly from your phone or camera.
• Avoid heavy filters. Instagram filters, black-and-white conversions, and extreme colour adjustments can confuse the conversion software. Send the most natural version of your photo.
• Consider orientation. Think about where you'll display the finished piece. If it's going above a horizontal sideboard, a landscape orientation makes sense. Above a narrow hallway table? Portrait might work better.
• Start from the face. If your custom kit features a person or pet, start placing drills from the face area. This is the most detailed section, and completing it first is incredibly motivating, you'll see the likeness emerge early on.
• Use a light pad. Custom canvases often have more symbols per square centimetre than standard kits. A light pad makes reading them dramatically easier.