What Adhesive Is Used for Diamond Painting?

Whether you are new to diamond painting or a seasoned professional, choosing/knowing what the best glue for diamond art is makes all the difference: kits made with poured glue deliver better results and ensure your finished products will withstand the test of time. Investing in high-quality kits and diamond painting accessories from Diamond Art Club® also helps you avoid many of the frustrations commonly associated with canvases that feature double-sided tape.

At Diamond Art Club®, we pride ourselves on creating the highest-quality diamond painting kits that are easy for everyone to use. From beginners to seasoned crafting pros, our kits provide an enjoyable experience for everyone. As someone who is reading our blog, you probably know a thing or two about the art of diamond painting and you may have already wondered what makes one diamond painting glue better than another. We are often asked what makes ours the best glue for diamond art. In this article, we'll break down exactly what type of adhesive we use, how it compares to the alternative, and why it's the best.

Shop Our Collection of Diamond Painting Kits for Everyone!

Every company that makes diamond painting kits, uses a different adhesive on their canvas, but the options really fall into two broad categories: double-sided tape and poured glue. Both look transparent on the canvas, but a closer look shows why the highest-quality diamond art kits use only poured glue.

The Two Types of Adhesive Used for Diamond Painting Kits

As mentioned above, diamond painting kits are made using two different types of adhesive. Some companies use double-sided tape, while others—including Diamond Art Club®—use poured glue on their canvases. Both are transparent, but there are many good reasons the best brands use poured glue. 

Double-Sided Tape: A Budget Option

Double-sided tape can be cut to the size of the artwork and attached onto the canvas. Similar to a sticker sheet, it's inexpensive and easy for the manufacturer to apply to a canvas as soon as it's printed, which is why most of the inexpensive kits you'll find on Amazon or other websites typically use double-sided tape as an adhesive. This is a case where the old saying "you get what you pay for" holds true. While kits made with this type of adhesive may cost less, they're much less likely to keep their adhesion long-term, and they will most likely lose drills in high humidity or extreme temperatures.

Double-sided tape is also more prone to separating from the canvas which can result in a range of problems, from diamonds falling off to air bubbles and wrinkles. This type of adhesive also makes the canvas feel stiff rather than soft and flexible and becomes less sticky the longer it’s exposed to air, so finishing projects quickly is a must. If you don’t, using your applicator to apply diamond painting drills will be no easy task, as the canvas might not be tacky enough to keep them in place.

Many companies that rely on this adhesive also extend the tape beyond the edges of the artwork itself, and that excess easily collects dust, pet hair, and other debris, leaving a dirty, unwanted border on your masterpiece. Whether you're just picking up diamond painting as a new hobby or you've been painting with diamonds for a while, working on canvases with double-sided tape can be more frustrating than enjoyable. 

Poured Glue: The Premium Standard

Canvases that use poured glue as an adhesive are of much higher quality. The process involves spreading a coat of specially engineered diamond art glue over each canvas—sometimes using a paintbrush-like tool to ensure every section is fully covered—and letting it dry for several hours in a special chamber before packaging. Once the canvas is fully dry, it's covered with a protective layer of release paper to keep the tacky glue clean and dust-free until you're ready to start. While it's a far more time-consuming and costly than sticking on a sheet of double-sided tape, it produces a noticeably higher-quality diamond painting.

Strong and sturdy, poured glue does not lose adhesiveness even when exposed to extreme heat, cold, large temperature swings or humidity. Once the diamonds are in place, they are much less likely to pop off a poured glue canvas than a taped one and canvases coated in poured glue remain pliable and soft, with no air bubbles or wrinkles to worry about. 

Poured glue also offers a degree of flexibility that tape simply can't match. While it's always best to align your diamonds carefully using a diamond painting pen, tweezers or another diamond painting tool before placing them, poured glue offers some wiggle room to adjust drills afterward. That flexibility is useful with either shape. Square drills also help guide one another into alignment as a section fills, and you can gently adjust a diamond if needed.

The Diamond Art Club® Difference

At Diamond Art Club®, our goal is to make the highest-quality diamond painting kits, so we don't cut corners. Rather than saving time and money with double-sided tape, we use a proprietary, high-tech poured glue process that results in exceptional adhesion. Our glue is extremely stable and unlike other products, it resists oxidation — meaning our canvases stay sticky even when exposed to humidity, air, and large shifts in temperature.

Check Out the Best Diamond Painting Kits

Because our poured glue does all the work, you also don't need to worry about sealing your finished artwork. You may have come across advice online about sealing diamond paintings and wondered whether you needed to — with Diamond Art Club® canvases, you don't. There's no need to invest in a diamond painting sealer or sealant at all, because our quality adhesive holds every rhinestone securely in place on its own.

Other Benefits of Diamond Art Club® Kits 

The Tools That Complete Every Kit

Our proprietary poured adhesive isn't the only thing that makes our kits stand out as high-quality. Our canvases are buttery soft and self-flattening, which means no rolling or curling to contend with. We manually convert every image into a diamond painting canvas to ensure quality and detail. We produce our luxury 5D resin rhinestones on well-maintained equipment so every facet captures light and shimmers beautifully. We make sure that every kit comes with all the diamond art tools you need to complete the project, including a diamond art pen with a metal tip, a premium tray to keep your drills sorted and plenty of extra wax. We also offer detailed step-by-step instructions on our website to help beginners learn this fun, relaxing craft, plus a wide range of high-quality diamond painting accessories to help you take your creations to the next level. 

Reviving a Tired, Dried-Out Canvas

One of these accessories is a water-based diamond painting glue we created in our continuing effort to minimize frustrations for diamond painters. Have you ever pulled an older canvas out of a drawer only to realize it isn't as tacky as it used to be—or accidentally scuffed or damaged a section mid-project? Our Canvas Adhesive with Applicator is made for exactly those situations: reviving old or damaged canvases. This diamond painting adhesive comes in a 4 oz / 120 ml bottle for $13.99 (Sept. 2026) with a snap-on applicator; it's water-based and non-toxic, so it's simple and safe to use whenever a canvas needs a little help.

To use it, spread a thin, even layer over the area that's lost its stickiness. The applicator is designed to lay down the glue precisely, so there's less waste and mess to deal with, and any extra glue wipes away easily with plain water. A little goes a long way, and it dries fast and clear. Like all of our products, Canvas Adhesive with Applicator is backed by a lifetime warranty on materials and a 30-day return window, so you can count on it to get a stalled project moving again.

At Diamond Art Club®, we also offer industry-leading guarantees on our products. We stand behind our products with a 100 percent money-back guarantee, meaning you won’t be out anything if, for some reason, one of our products does not live up to your expectations. Additionally, every kit includes free accidental damage insurance replacements.

Dazzle Pals™: Freestyle Diamond Painting Beyond the Canvas

And our glue isn't just for canvases, either. It's also what makes our Dazzle Pals™ figurines possible — a fun, three-dimensional take on the classic diamond painting canvas. Instead of following a printed pattern on a flat surface, Dazzle Pals™ let you apply diamonds freestyle directly onto a shaped figure, opening the door to a lot more creativity than a traditional canvas allows.

Every Dazzle Pals™ kit comes with our diamond painting glue included, along with all the diamond art tools and diamonds you need to finish the figure — no extra shopping required. Just pick up the included applicator, and you're ready to start placing diamonds wherever your own design takes you.

Conclusion

We are proud to make the highest quality diamond painting kits on the market, and we’re sure you’ll love them if you give them a try. Diamond painting is a hobby like cross-stitch that calms the mind while enabling even complete beginners to create stunning works of art. If you have been using lower-quality kits with double-sided tape adhesive, switch to Diamond Art Club® to experience the difference for yourself.