Making your picture

Round (2.8 mm): quick to place, no orientation to worry about, very sparkly. Small gaps show up close. Great for beginners.

Square (2.5 mm): they fit together and cover the whole canvas for a crisp picture, good for portraits. They need a little more care to keep rows straight.

Every design in our shop comes in both shapes.

Press the pen tip into the wax so a little stays on the end. That is enough to lift a drill lying facet side up in the tray. Place it on the symbol and press lightly.

When the pen stops picking drills up, add a little more wax. Use only a small amount so it does not leave marks.

Yes, on the parts you are not working on. Peel the film back only over the area in progress, folding it or cutting it into strips. The rest of the canvas stays clean and sticky.

Put the film back between sessions to keep out dust and pet hair.

The glue loses grip when it stays uncovered for a long time or collects dust. Work in small areas and put the film back. If a patch sticks less, dab it gently with sticky tape to lift dust and hair.

If the canvas is faulty when you open the kit, write to us with a photo and your order number.

Lift it with the tweezers or the pen tip, then place it in the right square. The canvas glue stays active, so the drill will hold again.

With square drills, straighten the rows as you go using the edge of a ruler or the tweezers.

The bags hold a few more drills than needed, so you never run short. Keep the extras in a compartment storage box labelled by number: they are handy to replace a lost drill or to decorate cards, frames and small objects.

Set up at a flat, well-lit table and find the key along the edge of the canvas. Start in a corner or at the top and work in small blocks, so your hand does not drag over drills you have already placed.

Only peel the film back over the area you are working on. Many people do one colour at a time within a block; others use the checkerboard method (every other square). The full step-by-step is in our beginner's guide.

On our blog, the beginner's guide walks through every step: preparing the canvas, using the pen, wax and tray, placing drills and finishing the picture. Each product page also has a short placing video and an unboxing video.

For specific questions (alignment, storage, a warped canvas), browse the other questions in this FAQ or the how-to articles on the blog.

Place square drills in straight rows following the canvas grid, and check the alignment every few lines while the glue is fresh. A crooked drill can be nudged straight with the pen tip or tweezers.

To fix several rows at once, slide the edge of an alignment ruler along the line. Do not squeeze them too tightly: each drill should stay in its own square, or the shift builds up. See our alignment guide.

Pour a small amount of a single colour into the tray, then shake it gently back and forth: the grooves flip the drills facet side up and line them up. Then just pick them up with the pen.

Do not pour too many at once or they pile up. When you finish a colour, put the rest back in its bag or storage box before moving to the next, so colours do not get mixed.

Most often they were not pressed firmly enough into the glue, or the area picked up dust while left uncovered for a long time. Pictures that are rolled or folded after drilling also lose drills along the edges.

Press each finished area with a roller, put the film back between sessions and store the canvas flat. For a drill that popped off a spot with no tack left, a tiny dot of clear glue is enough. Once finished, a sealer or a glazed frame keeps them in place for good.

Use a table large enough to keep the canvas flat. Work one strip at a time starting from an edge, and leave the film on everything else. The finished part can hang over the table edge, covered with a sheet of paper, but never folded.

Between sessions, place something flat and light on the canvas so it does not curl. A light pad moved under the area you are working on helps with big canvases. Allow several weeks for 80 × 120 cm.

• Work under good light and only uncover the area you are on.
• One colour at a time in the tray, and not too many drills at once.
• Keep a sheet of paper handy: laid over finished parts, it stops finger marks.
• Run the roller over each finished area.
• Write the colour number on each box or bag.
• Store the canvas flat between sessions.