I am not good at sketching, drawing, painting or sewing; but that hasn’t stopped me from doing these, except for the crochet and sewing. My Nana, may she rest in peace, tried teaching me how to have fun sewing and making things with my hands that way but I couldn’t get into it, being a kid and knowing that I wasn’t any good I gave up on it quickly. Of course whenever I had visited her, I made sure to do the art projects with her so as to not hurt her feelings, plus yes they were somewhat fun but I would have rather been outside playing with the chickens and the horse.

I kept searching for something that I am good at, besides doodling little flowers and hearts and stick people; the only thing I seem to be good at. Thankfully as a Preschool Teacher, the kids didn’t judge me for my lack of drawing skills. They wanted me to still draw them cars, houses, and other things but their favorite thing for me to make them which thankfully I can do is make them little books so that they can make their own little books. But other than that I know that my artistic side lies in writing and I have stayed true to do it.

But there are days when I don’t feel like writing but still want to keep my mind and my hands busy so I continue to search the craft stores like Michael's for something to do that I would actually be good at. I do have colored pencils and a sketch book and I draw but I wanted something else as well, not just to draw okay things. So as I searched for something fun, easy AND relaxing, I decided to try my hand at needle point type art crafts. But of course, I failed and got bored very quickly. It was back to the “drawing board” as they say so my search continued.

Finally in the $1.00 bins at Michael’s I spotted a Tigress and her cub and picked it up, always being drawn tigers, and thought that I would give it a shot. All I had to do was practice scraping away some of the lines in the black little square they gave and then moved on to the bigger project. I smiled and tired it, engraving the tigress and her cub, bringing them out by giving them their copper feel by scraping away the lines provided. I finished it in a day and found it very relaxing and a lot of fun; did I mention that it’s EASY?

After finishing the tigress and her cub, I decided that I will buy more and make them for my friends; having seen animals that my friends really like. Polar bears, penguins, leopards, panda bears, wolves, and whales; all great animals and from the looks of the pictures they will be a lot of fun and give me more of a challenge with the texture in the picture, having to use more precise scraping.

This art project is from 8 years old to adults which is great because you can sit down at the table or on the couch and do them together as a family. You just have to be careful with the scraping tool because the tip is sharp and can cut your finger if used in the wrong manner. But if you are looking for something fun, easy, and relaxing, try this engraving art project that you can buy at Michael’s. I am glad that I continued looking for something to do art wise because now I found my thing, engraving foil animals and have fun doing it. Yes it does hurt my eyes after a while but it is great that I actually found something besides writing that I am good at. Now I have another project that I can do when I’m not in the mood to write.  And a great thing is that you can't tell if you have messed up because it just enhances the engraved animal even more if you do mess up a bit.