How to Store Your Diamond Painting Kits, Tools & Beads
Painting with diamonds takes concentration and attention to minute details, but that’s also part of what makes it engaging and calming for so many DIY enthusiasts. Of course, it’s the thousands and thousands of tiny 5d diamond rhinestones that demand so much attention. For diamond painters new to the art, it’s easy enough to keep track of the diamond painting beads included in a single full-drill diamond painting kit.
But diamond painting aficionados who have been painting with diamonds for a long time know that every diamond painting kit leaves behind a fair bit of excess rhinestones, and they also know that any rhinestone from any diamond painting kit can be used on any other diamond painting kit. Thus, one of the biggest concerns for 5d diamond painters who adeptly churn through diamond painting kit after diamond painting kit is just what to do with all the leftover rhinestones, tweezers, and other diamond painting tools once their source diamond painting kits have been completed.
Opportunities to upcycle egg cartons and plastic storage bins into charming DIY storage boxes for rhinestones abound, adding a secondary but equally creative chance to engage with diamond painting. Bead storage systems can be constructed from plastic bags, storage racks, pillboxes, and much, much more. It’s all up to the particular diamond painter and their unique style which kind of storage box or sorting system they’d like to build. It’ll save tons of time and anguish in the event a furry friend jumps up on your diamond painting workspace or a sneeze surprises you at an inopportune moment. Crafting enthusiasts will love devising and making their diamond painting storage system and love the convenience it offers even more.
Read on to see some of the craftiest DIY diamond organizational ideas out there and revel in the ease of selecting 310s and 5200s out of your very own, one-of-a-kind diamond painting storage systems.
Diamond painting storage container ideas
For both a creative challenge and an opportunity to keep a few small items out of the landfill, consider building a DIY storage box out of widely available materials or things you already have around the house. There’s no limit to what you can turn into an efficient bead storage container, but the best storage box will have a lid that closes firmly or a zipper that won’t open and spill rhinestones everywhere, creating a vivid, glamorous catastrophe all over the rug and workspace. High-quality bead organizers are sold ready-to-use for those crafting enthusiasts who don’t have the time to work on a DIY version. These plastic storage containers can also be personalized with a few creative touches.
For the DIY-focused, egg cartons can make a great storage box. It might take some time to sort all the different colors of rhinestones out, but once you have each one in a properly-labeled plastic storage bag, you can simply put each bag into one of the egg divots and dip into the egg carton to get whatever rhinestone color you need. There isn’t an easy way to keep the plastic storage bags from shifting if the egg carton is moved, so the egg carton idea makes a better storage box for use with one diamond painting kit at a time. That way, it won’t overfill with 5d diamond rhinestones and you can simply leave the egg carton open at your workspace while you complete your latest masterpiece.
For the culinarily gifted who have been twice-blessed with diamond painting skills, a spice rack can also make a great DIY diamond organizer. Some spice racks some on a rotating base, which is very handy to sort through colors without taking up lots of horizontal space. Plastic storage cups of the right size will likely quite easily fit into the rings or gaps where bottles of spices were intended to be stored. The biggest problem with this DIY solution to diamond painting storage is that the lids for plastic storage cups are likely to be closed using flimsy plastic lids that will more likely than not pop off in the event one of them (or all of them *shudder*) is knocked off the countertop and onto the floor. A simple DIY solution like rubber bands should secure these plastic lids nicely; otherwise, another solution like handmade lids could correct this flaw.
Pillboxes are fairly optimal because they can be easily labeled, the lids fasten securely, and their size can be large enough to deter a tumble from the more common slight knocks to the side of a table. They also make great storage containers because they can be stacked on top of each other and stowed away somewhere, which means 5d diamonds from age-old diamond painting kits can be effectively stored over long periods until you get around to using them. While pillboxes are customizable, for the faint of heart DIY enthusiast, they shouldn’t present too much apprehension. The only mandatory addition to a standard pillbox is a label for what color rhinestone is inside, which can be done by writing the DMC code on the lids with a sharpie in no time at all.
Storage containers for 5d diamond painting accessories
Organizing your rhinestones will make completing a diamond painting kit much easier, but there are a few other related products that come with full drill DIY diamond painting kits that will start to pile up and clutter your workspace if you haven’t sorted out a way to sort them as well. Anything with a sliding drawer or packable separate plastic storage containers is a viable option for storing 5d diamond-related products such as tweezers or an LED light that can’t be left out on the countertop all day-round. Small containers of instant coffee crystals can be used for extra tweezers, or they can be bundled and saved in a sliding drawer or a zipper-close pencil case. Diamond art does tend to make small objects collect around the workspace, but plastic storage bags and bins can make short work of these and let you store them where they’ll be easily accessible when you need them again.
One strategy that will work equally well for drill storage and diamond painting accessory storage is a sliding catalog crafted out of a coat rack, coat hangers, or any other hangable rod-based object. Building one of these DIY rhinestone or diamond painting accessory storage systems is easy to do, and diamond painting enthusiasts who want to quickly tuck their 5d diamond equipment out of sight when they aren’t working on it will love being able to stick a hanger in a hall closet for storage. For a bead organizer, small plastic bags can be labeled with DMC codes and then placed on a small hook. The hooks can be lined up on the bottom of the coat hanger for easy access. Hang it up on a nearby lamp or bulletin board for quick-access drill storage and remove it to a closet when you’re finished. Tweezers and wax can also be stowed in larger plastic baggies in the same way. Diamond art enthusiasts who work frequently with textiles for other DIY projects will love having their diamond painting gear integrated with the rest of their arts & crafts or DIY tools this way.
Bulk storage containers for 5d diamond rhinestones
Sometimes, despite your best efforts to include them in a dazzling, colorful piece of diamond art, certain colors of rhinestone will build-up to the point where they’re a little overwhelming. At that point, it’s easy enough to build a rhinestone storage box out of standard Ziploc containers that have easy-snap sealing lids and are spill-resistant by design. They also stack and they’ll fit in any larger storage kit you care to use. Refilling smaller storage containers or clothes hanger diamond storage systems from these larger storage boxes is easily done with a scoop, plastic cup, or funnel. The most important thing with bulk drill storage is to label every single one very, very carefully, because while mixing up a bag or two of similarly-colored rhinestones is pretty bad, accidentally mixing in a small amount of 818s and 3689s and having to sort through them is an absolute nightmare, and your eyesight will take a toll from the effort.
Building your own 5d diamond storage containers from scratch
It’s always good to upcycle and creating useful diamond painting storage systems from found objects that can save a ton of time and effort, but one of the most satisfying endeavors for the ambitious DIY crafting wiz is a fully handmade 5d diamond storage container. There are a variety of options you can use to build your own storage boxes. Old shoeboxes or a painting box with additional cardboard inserts to divide the box into different sections to store rhinestones by color is a great option, and you can store the rhinestones in plastic bags for easy access. All you need to do is cut vertical slats in thin strips of cardboard, either the horizontally or vertically aligned ones, and then place the ones without the slats (the opposite ones) into the slats at each point. Make sure to count the number of different colors you want to store before you construct the box. It’s probably wisest to make two or three of these boxes with a content label on each one.
How to store unfinished 5d diamond paintings
The go-to way to store 5d diamond paintings that are still in progress is to construct a large portfolio folder with two pieces of cardboard. If you don’t work on several diamond paintings at a time, this is still a solid option for you. All you need to do is cut two pieces of cardboard that are big enough to cover the diamond paintings you’re working on, up to the largest size. Then you can connect the DIY portfolio case on the top and bottom with staples or glue. Make sure you only connect one side so you can actually fit an incomplete diamond painting inside! If you want even easier access, consider stapling the top of the two pieces along the top about halfway from the closed side. That way, with an open top and an open side, half of the portfolio case will open, giving you quick access to your diamond painting. The cardboard will provide enough storage to keep everything safe in between 5d diamond painting sessions, especially if you have a place to store it that’s cool and out of reach.
If you’re looking for a more rugged or long-term diamond painting storage solution, or if you’ve begun working with larger-sized diamond painting kits, consider adding a storebought, full-size artist’s portfolio to your wishlist. They close with a zipper so your unfinished diamond painting kits will not spill out, and multiple kits can be stacked on top of one another inside. Add wax paper dividers for extra protection, or if you’re really concerned, you can use thin particleboard or poster board to keep the various diamond painting kits from sticking to each other. Be aware, though, that if the adhesive starts to dry on an incomplete diamond painting kit after too long in storage, there isn’t much you can do to save it. Make sure you haven’t lifted the peel-away layer from any area of the diamond painting kit and left it unfinished, because it’s really hard to do so once the adhesive has dried.
For the diamond painting hobbyists who tend to stick to smaller-format diamond painting kits that they are able to complete in their spare time, a full-size artist’s portfolio storage case may be overkill. In that case, we would advise purchasing any kind of plastic-faced storage portfolio large enough to stow whatever you haven’t finished yet. Some enterprising 5d diamond artists have also started to store their unfinished diamond paintings in the protective sheet pages of photo albums! Granted, this solution is not for everyone and especially not so for large-format 5d diamond painters, but for those who stick to smaller kits (or who have a lot of kits of every size unfinished at the moment), a photo album could be a great option for storing incomplete diamond painting kits, and it’ll slide right onto a standard bookshelf or closet shelf most of the time.
Diamond painting storage box for completed 5d diamond paintings
We’ve already written a complete guide on framing diamond paintings, but there are a small number of 5d diamond painters who are searching for new and innovative ways to store the diamond painting kits that they have completed already. Sure, some of them can be used for home decor or given as gifts, but if your hallways are already well-adorned or you need somewhere to store completed diamond painting kits when they’re out of rotation, there are some great options that have been dreamed up by various diamond painting enthusiasts.
A photo album can be a great way to store completed diamond paintings just as it can be a great way to store incomplete ones. The nice thing about a photo album is you can still show off your diamond paintings when they aren’t hanging up anywhere, and they’ll still say safe and in one piece in the sheet protector pages.
It can be equally fun to decorate or embroider the outside of a standard storage box and keep your completed diamond painting kits inside. If you’re really drowning in rhinestones, you can use a common adhesive to affix them to the outside a storage box in a decorative pattern or write your name on it if you share a house with other diamond artists and don’t want any confusion to arise.
Diamond painting storage is the key to keeping your painting safe
Like other arts & crafts, diamond painting is a nice way to relax that results in really stunning, colorful images at the end. Many love it as a way to concentrate without completely emptying their heads, but there’s nothing worse than having your tranquil diamond art zen state interrupted by a sudden spilling of hundreds or thousands of rhinestones. As much fun as it is to complete a full drill diamond painting kit, it is absolutely not fun to pick all those drills up off the floor.
While creating or setting up a diamond painting storage system may sound like a hassle, it can be just as much fun and just as creative as diamond painting itself. Most of the options for storing complete and incomplete diamond paintings are rife with opportunities to customize, decorate, and perhaps even use up some of those extra rhinestones that never seem to go away. Finding an effective drill storage method can be a little bit like solving a puzzle or a riddle (or a trick question), but in the end, it is both fun enterprise and a huge time saver that allows you to spend more time working away at your diamond painting kits.
Now that you’ve read through our guide, you can organize your workspace and get all those rhinestones in an orderly and clean drill storage system. Hopefully, you’ll have room for a few new diamond painting kits now that you know all there is to know about diamond painting storage.
Bonus tip: Check out this video for a few extra diamond painting storage tips while you're at it!