#techniquethursday - brayering

On my #tooeasytuesday post this week I showed you a card made using a brayer.  Today I'm going to tell you a little bit more about what a brayer is and how to use it.  A brayer is basically a hard foam roller you can use as a blank stamp.  See the tool in the photo below - that's a brayer.  You use a brayer to spread ink or to offset an image from plate or stamp to paper.  Lots of people use it to create backgrounds - which is what I did with this card.  But you can also use it to transfer ink to large stamps,  ink up large pieces of card, smooth out large glued surfaces and more.

In this card I decided to use 3 colours of ink - Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie and Daffodil Delight.  The first thing I did was to emboss resist the image (image 2 above).  After that I started to layer up ink on my brayer by rolling it across the ink pad starting with the lightest colour first - Daffodil Delight.  I then added Pumkin Pie to about 55% of the brayer, and finally Melon Mambo to about 30%.  I then rolled the brayer over my image covering every bit of whisper white card.  Brayering like this gives a graduated effect when the ink dries and the colour seem to blend seamlessly from light to dark across the ink.  The other fantastic thing about using a brayer when you emboss resist is that it's incredibly fast.   Sponging is a great technique but it can take a while.  Using a brayer is a quick and easy way of getting an even bolder effect for your stamped image.

I haven't used my brayer in a really long time, but after making these two cards this week I think I'll have to do a few more.  I'm sure there is at least another 10 ways to use it that I haven't thought of.  If you've got a favourite way of using your brayer let me know.  I'd love to give it a go.

Happy crafting.

Sally

ingredients:
ink: Melon Mambo; Pumpkin Pie; Daffodil Delight; Versa Mark
stamps: Sweet Floral
card: Whisper White, Early Espresso, Sahara Sand
other: Clear Embossing Powder; Heat tool; Brayer; Snail