Recommended for first purchases.
Diamond painting and sticker by number get compared constantly, and for good reason: they are the two biggest "numbered grid, no artistic skill needed" crafts on the market right now. But they are not the same experience, and if relaxation is specifically what you are after, the differences actually matter.
This is the biggest, most-cited difference, and it is not close. Diamond painting involves thousands of tiny loose resin "diamonds" that spill, roll under furniture, and stick to literally everything, including your cat. Sticker by number, ours included, involves zero loose pieces. Every sticker peels off a sheet and goes exactly where it is numbered to go.
"J'ai adoré pixyls puisque j'aimais faire du diamond painting mais avec les enfants c'était difficile et souvent les perles tombaient partout. Avec les autocollants, rien ne se perd et tout se range facilement." (Isabelle D., translated from French: "I loved Pixyls because I used to enjoy diamond painting, but with kids it was hard and the beads often ended up everywhere. With stickers, nothing gets lost and everything's easy to put away.")
Diamond painting canvases are large, flat, and awkward to transport without a tray and cover. Sticker sheets and bookmarks fold flat into a bag. If you want to craft on a plane, in a waiting room, or on a friend's couch, sticker by number wins by a wide margin.
"This is my new fave craft! It's addictive, easy, fun, portable (no mess!), and chill. Forget beads, diamonds, jewels, paint, etc that all can cause disastrous messes." (Mel L.)
Diamond painting is famously repetitive: same motion, same size piece, thousands of times over. Some people find that deeply meditative. Others find it monotonous. Sticker by number varies more in piece size and shape within a single design, which keeps the motion a little more engaging without sacrificing the same low-pressure, no-skill structure.
Both crafts scale from small (a keychain-sized diamond painting, a bookmark-sized sticker kit) to large (a full canvas). At comparable sizes, sticker placement is generally faster than diamond placement, since stickers peel and place in one motion while diamonds require picking up with a wax-tipped pen one at a time.
To be fair, diamond painting has its own advantages: the sparkly, textured finish is genuinely unique, and some people find the uniform, repetitive motion more meditative precisely because it requires even less decision-making than sticker by number's slightly varied piece sizes.
An unfinished diamond painting canvas needs a dedicated cover and a flat, undisturbed surface between sessions, or the loose diamonds shift and spill. An unfinished sticker sheet or bookmark just goes back in its sleeve or a drawer, no special storage setup required. For anyone working on a project in short, interrupted bursts rather than long dedicated sessions, that difference adds up over weeks.
If mess and portability matter to you, sticker by number is the clear winner. If you specifically love the sparkly diamond finish and do not mind the cleanup, diamond painting still has a place. A lot of our customers, like Isabelle above, land in the same spot: they loved diamond painting's concept but switched to sticker by number once mess became a dealbreaker, especially with kids or pets in the house.
One underrated difference: diamond painting involves a constant light clicking and scraping as diamonds get picked up and pressed into place, which some people find soothing and others find grating over a long session. Sticker by number is essentially silent, just the quiet peel of a sticker sheet, which makes it a better fit for shared spaces, late-night sessions next to a sleeping partner, or listening to a podcast without a layer of background noise competing for attention.
Diamond painting canvases at a comparable size tend to run higher due to the sheer volume of resin pieces and adhesive canvas required. Sticker by number kits are generally more affordable at similar dimensions, and because there is no risk of losing pieces, you are also not paying to replace lost diamonds that rolled under the couch.
Small diamonds are a genuine choking and mess hazard around young kids and pets. Stickers are simply safer to have on a family craft table, and easier to supervise since a dropped sticker is easy to spot and pick back up, unlike a scattered handful of resin pieces.
If you are diamond-painting-curious but hesitant, start small. A Floral Bookmarks Set ($18 USD) takes an evening and gives you a real feel for the sticker by number process before you commit to a full canvas.
We ship worldwide, wherever you're crafting from. Ready to compare for yourself? Browse the full collection and start with whatever size fits your evening.
