I have wanted to purchase a Brayer for a long time. I had seen crafters use it in lots of different ways. When I got a gelpress, I had to get a brayer. I loved it so much, I ended up buying another one! I have one for paint and one for ink. Jennifer McGuire has two videos demonstrating ways to use a brayer.
While you can use a brayer to apply ink to large background stanmps, your gelpress and embossing folders, you can also use it to apply ink directly onto the paper. Rolling the brayer in the ink and then onto the cardstock will give you an interesting texture and you will never be able to make two backgrounds that looks exactly the same. I had loads of fun playing with my brayer, inks and different paper/ cardstock. Have a look at these.
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| This card background uses the matte side of some photo paper. A big die cut sentiment and this card is done. How cool is that? You could do something similar in any other colour combination. I like ot use inks that "play nicely", mixing together without making brown. Of course, I think I used brown in this particular card, but usually I wouldn't. |
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| These cards look similar because they use the same colour combination. I used the shiny side of the photo paper for these cards. The card to the left is made mostly from scraps. The sentiments on these cards were cut from backgrounds that were also made using my brayer, ink and stencils. |
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| These cards are actually quite 'flat' but there is quite a bit of dimension. I achieved this, by rolling different shades of green ink on the card panel. There are darker and lighter spots on the card which sort of reminds me of a patchy field where the kids used to practice soccer. Using a grassy stencil I ink blended over the top to give it a different texture. The hexagons were just diecut from a hexagon nesting die set. Adding a simple sentiment strip, finishes this card off perfectly. No need for further embellishment. |
You could use any analagous colour combination and several different types of cardstock to play with this technique and make lots of backgrounds. One last card for you..
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| All the paper in this card was coloured using my gelpress. The ink was applied using a brayer. It gives a softer feel. I really like it. |
Get out your Brayer and have a play. See what you can make with it.
Until next time, Happy Crafting!
