Engraving Art - A Great Craft for Kids

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Reported By Julia Stainton

When I saw these Engraving Art craft kits in Michael's I just knew I had to buy some for my kids. As a busy mother of five and long-time crafter, I knew these would be a hit. I know that I would have loved to play with this product when I was growing up. Who am I kidding?! I'd still love some quiet time to have a little fun with these!

The Engraving Art kids are preprinted scratch art boards. Each comes with a black finish that when scraped lightly reveals a beautiful foil or rainbow design underneath. The engraving boards are printed with the design that is shown on the outside of the kit. The designs are fairly intricate and perfect for older kids. This product is rated for ages eight and up. I've actually let a younger child use them with very careful supervision. These designs make it very easy to achieve a high quality finished product...something many kids of this age group struggle with. They want something that is doable with great results. Unfortunately sometimes that can sometimes be beyond their skill level. This craft gives results that they can be proud of. It is especially difficult to get many boys to craft. With many animal and wild-life designs available, this can be a perfect craft for them.

The Engraving Art kits are produced by Royal & Langnickel Brush Mtf. Inc and are a very high quality kit. Everything you need comes in the package. A 5"x7" preprinted engraving board and one scrapecutter. If desired you can use a damp cloth to brush off excess scrapings but we have never needed that. The kits that are found in Michael's feature three different options...Copper Foil, Silver Foil & Rainbow. All of these look lovely.One of the best things about this product is the price. I purchased mine for $1.50 Cdn each. I'm assuming that Michael's sell these for only $1.00 US as that seems to be the trend with other products there. Each design takes a few hours to complete making this a great entertainment value. The kits can be quite addictive so you may want to pick up a couple and at that price, why not? Another great thing is portability. This package is small and very easy to pack along for a trip or rainy day at the cottage. Just keep the packaging and slip the board back in to carry your work in progress with you. I've done this on a few occasions to carry along to various appointments with your child.

While researching this product, I came across the Royal and Langnickel web-site and found some great other products in this line! I was excited discover other super Engraving Art kits. They also sell Gold Foil, Famous Places, larger sizes, Holographic, Blank Boards and even Glow in the Dark kits. I know that I'm going to be tracking these down for some rainy day activites. You can purchase these directly from the Royal and Langnickel web-site. This web-site only ships within the USA so I'm going to have to do a little more looking to come up with mine.

What I Love About These Kits...

• Easy to follow directions
  


• Small compact kit
  


• Comes complete with eveything you need
  


• Great for older kids
  


• Very easy to get great results
  


• Very portable
  


• No Mess...perfect for parents who do not like craft messes
  


• Perfect for boys or girls
  


• Lots of designs to choose from
  


• Inexpensive
  


• Perfect for travel or a rainy day

There are a few things to be careful of when using this product. The scraper can be sharp so please keep it out of the reach of small children. The other thing to note is to scrape lightly so that you do not gouge the board right through the foil. This reveals the white board underneath. Only a light hand is needed. The kit does say on the back that it includes a small practice piece of board to try out first. After opening about 14 kits so far (can you tell we like this product?), we FINALLY discovered where the mini practice board was. It is very tiny and is adhered to the cardboard insert in the package. Make sure you don't throw it out like we did!

I asked a few children to give an Engraving Art kit a try so that I could share their samples here with you. They all had a great time trying them out.

David (10) engraved this Tiger kit. This was not his first kit and he really enjoys doing them. David enjoys the challenge and the high quality design. He also likes that you don't always have to follow the exact design and he personalized it to make it his own creation. David likes the selection of animals that are great for guys. He is really hoping to try out one of the glow in the dark varities, as well as a large landscape, this summer.
Victoria (9), Julia (8) & Allie (6) all had fun working together on this kitten design. They found the curved lines of the kitten a little challenging but really enjoyed the craft.

If you have older kids or maybe even grand-children coming for a visit, the Engaving Art is a great craft to try. We'd love to hear back from you if you did try it out! At Craft Critique, we always enjoy hearing your opinions too!