Crimson Blush Floral Diamond Painting Kit

Most homes have one wall that can carry a loud picture and several that cannot. This is for the loud one. Reds and pinks at full strength, nothing muted, no dusty vintage wash laid over the top to make it polite.

Oversized gerbera petals fill the canvas in red and blush, with monarch and rose-winged butterflies moving between them over a warm, streaked wood-grain ground. The blooms are cropped large enough that a single petal takes real time, and the wood grain behind them runs in visible streaks rather than sitting flat. Where the reds meet the pinks there is no outline doing the work, only the color stepping down one shade at a time. The butterfly wings are the busiest areas on the canvas and the last thing you should attempt at midnight.

Red is the hardest family to shade, and 21 colors from DMC 600AB to DMC 3833 is what keeps those petals from going flat. Take one or two shades out of that range and the whole thing turns into a poster of a flower instead of a flower.

The details

• 45 x 45 cm (18 x 18 in)
• Full coverage, round drills
• 21 DMC colors, DMC 600AB to DMC 3833
• Adhesive canvas with printed symbols and color legend
• Sealed, numbered, DMC color-coded drill packets
• Stylus pen, grooved tray, wax refill and tweezers included

Straight talk

Roughly 25 to 30 hours, so three or four weeks of evenings. Round drills are forgiving, which makes this reasonable as a second kit and ambitious as a first. Warm lamplight flattens reds into each other, so check your packet numbers rather than trusting the color in your hand, and pour one shade at a time into the tray. Kit only, not a finished canvas, and no frame is included. It ships rolled and needs a night flat under a weight.

Hang it on the wall you were never going to keep quiet anyway.