I don’t know about you, but I had a Brayer for a while before I knew how to use it. Once I started using it, I loved the effects I could get from it. Maybe you will too!
Using the Brayer to paint or ink your cardstock
A brayer is like a mini paint roller where the roller part is made of rubber. You can use it to cover large areas of paper, just like you would use a paint roller to cover large areas of the wall. Simply cover the roller in one color ink and roll it across the cardstock in one continuous motion, then move it back and forth across the paper to lay down as much color as you like.
You can add more than one color of ink to your brayer at a time, of course, and roll it onto your paper for a multi-color effect.
Inking of large stamps
It is sometimes very difficult to ink a large stamp by the normal means of applying ink to it or applying the stamp to an ink pad. Brayers can make a difference in your paper craft projects!
This is what you need to do:
- Place the stamp on its back on a piece of paper
- Ink your roller with the color of your choice
- Roll the ink in one direction over the stamp image, then roll it over the image from another direction until the entire image is inked.
- Keeping your stamp on its back, place your card stock or paper over the stamp and gently run your hand over the image area.
- Lift the paper straight off the stamp without twisting or moving it sideways to ensure a crisp, clean result.
Depending on the type of ink or paint you use, you may get several impressions of your stamp before you need to re-ink it or load it with more paint.
using paint
- Load your roller with paint
- Lay your stamp on its back on scrap paper, roll the paint over the stamp image
- Refill your roller with another color of paint
- Run this over the stamp, being careful not to mix the paint any more than you’d like.
- You can also drop some paint on the stamp to highlight selected areas – experiment with re-inking or alcohol inks to see what effect you get from dropping them on the stamp.
- Use the stamp as described above, laying your card stock over the stamp and smoothing the paper over the image.
- You can also try spraying the paint or ink with water before taking your next print to prolong the life of the paint or ink.
You will definitely get multiple stamp impressions when you use paint and a brayer, and each image will be slightly different from the previous one. It’s a good way to create a series of backgrounds for your cards, for example, or to make many scrapbook embellishments at once.
For more ideas for using a brayer and pictures to show you how you’ll find it on this page at PaperCraftCentral.com: