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 with 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 coat the roller with one color ink and roll it across the cardstock in one continuous motion, then move it back and forth across the paper to place 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

Sometimes it is 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 all the difference in your paper craft projects!

This is what you should do:

• Place the stamp on its back on a piece of paper
• Ink your roller with the color of your choice
• Roll ink in one direction over the stamp image, then roll over the image from another direction until the entire image is inked.
• Keeping your stamp on its back, place your cardstock or paper on top of the stamp and gently run your hand over the image area.
• Lift the paper straight off the stamp without twisting or shifting it to the sides 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 flat on its back on scrap paper, roll the paint over the stamp image
• Reload your roller with another color of paint
• Run this over the stamp, being careful not to mix the paint more than you would like.
• You can also drop a bit of paint on the stamp to highlight selected areas – experiment with reinking or alcohol inks to see what effects you get by dropping them on the stamp.
• Use the stamp as described above, placing your cardstock over the stamp and smoothing the paper over the image.
• You can also try spraying the paint or ink with water before taking the next print to extend the life of the paint or ink.

You will definitely get multiple stamp impressions when using paint and a brayer, and each image will be slightly different from the last. It’s a great way to create a series of backgrounds for your cards, for example, or to make many embellishments for a scrapbook 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: