A beautiful pair of activity books to bring out your artistic side. "EtchArt Hidden Forest" and "Etchart Secret Sea" by A.J Wood, Mike Jolley and Dinara Mirtalipova (Wide Eyed Editions)

Here's a pair of fantastic activity books to stimulate your senses and bring out your creative side.

The "Etchart" series allows you to take a stylus and bring out the amazing beauty of the designs in both books.

Starting with "Hidden forest" there are 9 different scenes to etch your own designs onto, with black scrape-friendly surfaces providing a wealth of colourful designs once you start to reveal the layer underneath.

It's a neat idea both my wife and I remember from our childhood, brought forward in time to dazzle a whole new generation of creative kids who will love this simple but thoroughly absorbing activity.

The designs are really beautiful, intricate and folk-arty...

Reveal the glorious colours underneath the black etchable surface. 

It's then over to your child's imagination to make their own beautiful designs spring to life.

There's also "Secret Sea" for children who prefer something a bit more nautical, again with 9 fabulous designs featuring undersea animals and plant life, ready for your artistic designs and etchings.

We loved these books, there's something quite restful and mindful about gently scratching away at the dark surface to bring out the colours (though you might want to put some newspaper down so that all those little black bits don't go all over carpets or clothes for younger kids).

The "Etchart" range starts with "Hidden Forest" and "Secret Sea", both available now from Wide Eyed Editions (kindly supplied for review).