Brayering Tips

Various Tips and Techniques for using a Brayer. This a compilation of tips, some contributed by unknown stampers.


Supply List:
• Brayer
• Raised, dye-based ink pad - the juicier the better!
• Raised, dye-based rainbow pad - the juicier the better!
• Embossing, resist, or Versamark pad
• Any non-word stamp smaller than 2 by 2 inches
• Glossy cardstock, cut into 1/4 or 1/8 sheets (easier to play with than full sheet and a good size for practicing)
• Vellum, cut into 1/4 or 1/8 sheets (same reason as above)
• Matte cardstock, cut into smaller sheets
• Scratch paper covering your work surface. You will be rolling an inked brayer over and beyond the surface of your card.
• Plastic wrap (Saran wrap), string, dental floss, rubber bands
• Little spray-bottle of water
• Liquid Appliqué or Puffy Paint
• Heat tool
• Scissors

Tip 1:
Stripes: using markers, make stripes on your brayer (this works best if you lie it on its back and turn the roller while holding the marker) all the way around until the beginning and ending stripe meet. Roll brayer across your paper in whatever direction you desire.

Tip 2:
Squiggles (technical term): Repeat the same process as for Stripes but make wavy lines instead of straight ones.

Tip 3:
Confetti/Dots/Raindrops: Randomly make marks on your brayer with your marker (you can use different colors) all over the entire roller. Then roll away.

Tip 4:
Plaids: Same as with the markers for Stripes except turn your paper 90 degrees and roll again.

Tip 5:
Plaids: You could also outline the stripes for your plaids with the smaller tip of your marker to make the plaid/stripes stand out more.

Tip 6:
Rainbow backgrounds. This works great for those scenery/landscape cards. You need a rainbow pad (Kaleidecolor, Paintbox, Ranger) for this. Ink up the brayer and then roll it across your cardstock. In order to smooth and blend the colors, roll several times; shift your brayer slightly to the right or left with each roll. Try this on matte, glossy, and vellum papers.

Tip 7:
Weave: Do technique #6. Cut your paper into strips. You can cut it so there is a rainbow on each strip or so that each strip is one solid color. Now, weave the strips together.

Tip 8:
Plaids: Same as the background in Tip 6, but after you’ve completely covered your paper with the rainbow pad, turn it 90 degrees and cover it again.

Tip 9:
Reverse/mirror Image: Ink or marker a stamp, and roll the brayer over the image to transfer the ink from your stamp to the brayer. Then roll over your paper. Your image will then appear backwards. This is great for almost anything except letters! Your brayered image will be lighter than if you had stamped it directly, so if you want to stamp the original and the reverse image next to each other and have them be the same intensity, stamp your original image on scratch paper once before stamping onto your card.

Tip 10:
Kissing: You need a background stamp and a solid stamp for this. Ink up your brayer. Lay the background stamp flat on its back and brayer over it to put ink onto it. Take a smaller solid stamp and stamp onto the background, transferring the ink to the smaller stamp. Finally, stamp the small stamp onto your paper!

Tip 11:
Ghosting: Stamp an image on your card (say the Snowflake from the Snowflake set) several times in clear embossing ink. (DO NOT EMBOSS) Then brayer over your invisible images with regular dye pad and your snowflakes will start to appear. Similar to resist (see below).

Tip 12:
Resist: Works best with glossy paper, you will need to choose your resist medium, ink, wax or other. Color on the glossy card stock with the pens or items below and then brayer over the top with dye-based ink. The pattern that you drew or colored will not let the brayered ink to absorb through the card stock therefore comes the resist . (this category could actually count for about 10 different ways to love your brayer as you are only limited by your imagination on what you choose as your resist medium)

Tip 13:
Others to try: oil colored pencils (work best with regular matte finished papers); crayons; wax paper; metallic pens; ink; resist ink; emboss ink (try the emboss pens to write a hidden message); rubber cement; masking fluid; white out/correction pen; Gel pens; wax resist sticks; Deka paint (for fabric - much harder to do).

Tip 14:
Another Resist able technique: crumple a piece of wax paper; iron (on hottest setting/no steam) wax paper onto white card stock (be sure to use an additional sheet of card stock between the wax paper and iron); press for only 2-3 seconds - this will transfer the wax to both sheets of card stock (if you iron too long the wax will be absorbed into the paper) Ink your brayer and then brayer over card stock. The brayer will resist laying color where the was paper has left its design (makes a great background paper)

Tip 15:
Another variation to the above is to use a stylus tool and with the wax paper on the card stock use the tip of your stylus to write your own message or draw your own design - brayer over to reveal your design or message.

Tip 16:
Use your brayer for those big or detailed background stamps to get the ink evenly distributed all over the stamp.

Tip 17:
Ink up a background stamp and get out a clean, uninked brayer. Set your paper gently onto the background stamp (lying on its back, inked), then roll your brayer out over the paper. This is great for getting even coverage of detailed or large stamps.

Tip 18:
You could also use the same technique as above for those bigger solid images that you want to emboss. Brayer over the image with the emboss pad for an even/smooth finish.

Tip 19:
Put a piece of cheesecloth down and brayer over the cheesecloth for a different effect.

Tip 20:
Try the same as above with lace doilies. Cover the doily with ink while it’s on scratch paper. Then flip it over onto your card and use the brayer to transfer the ink from the doily to the paper. Also try with lace and with bubble wrap.

Tip 21:
Flat surfaces you wouldn’t expect� Use your brayer and a rainbow pad to ink up the bottom of a rubber-soled shoe (Birkenstocks have a wonderful pattern on the bottom!) Then stamp with your shoe.

Tip 22:
Do with those cool rubber mats that Suze Weinberg sells.

Tip 23:
Brayer over a leaf (two ways to do this: place card stock over leaf or other nature finds and bring out the textured surfaces below; or use the reverse/mirror image technique to pick up the pattern of your nature find.)

Tip 24:
Joseph's Coat: Brayer with a KC pad and cover the entire area of your card (glossy works best). Emboss your image with clear embossing powder/ink on top of the area colored (this technique works best with the more solid image stamps like the tent from Roughin It or the Kids Prints). Then ink your brayer with Black or Navy (the darker the better) and cover the entire card again with this new color. Let the overcoat of ink dry, then buff the card with a paper towel to remove excess ink. What happens is that your KC color will then shine through. Just think of a great landscape card with stars in the sky and trees) WOW!!

Tip 25:
Ink up your brayer with embossing ink and roll over the entire card then emboss with clear powder

Tip 26:
Brayer an intense/brilliant color on glossy card stock then use a speckled background stamp and clear emboss ink, stamp then emboss with Rainbow Razzle or other multi colored emboss powder. When you heat it will bring out the beautiful play in colors.

Tip 27:
Watercolor brayer: Ink your brayer with a rainbow pad or markers, then spritz with a water bottle, then roll out for a very pretty watercolor look.

Tip 28:
Brayer with a rainbow pad or one color, then use a background stamp of a slightly darker color over the top. Adds interest to your background.

Tip 29:
Brayers and bleach. Wrap string, dental floss, or yarn on your brayer. Put a little bit of bleach on a paper towel and use that as an inkpad. Ink your brayer with bleach (be sure to start with a clean brayer). Now, roll onto dark cardstock. You can make interesting lines and streaks. I saw a cool Christmas card with dental floss and bleach on forest green cardstock as the base layer. It made thin bleached lines on the base layer, then the next layer was a light green cardstock with a dark image of a spindly pine bough� very cool!

Tip 30:
If you want to extend your ink a little farther, spritz water into the air, and then move your brayer through the wet air.

Tip 31:
Brayer onto vellum. Allow some drying time. Ink up a background stamp with embossing ink, stamp it onto the same side as your brayered ink, and then emboss with white.

Tip 32:
Brayer onto vellum. Flip vellum over, then emboss white on the other side for a softer look. This looks great with a pastel rainbow pad on one side & white embossing on the other side.

Tip 33: Lyra pencils - especially the new metallics & neons - resist WONDERFULLY. Stamp an image lightly in black, color it with Lyra metallics, then brayer over the whole area with black. Gently wipe with tissue to uncover the Lyra.


Tips for LUCITE/ACRYLIC Brayer

Tip 1:
An acrylic brayer covers differently than a rubber brayer. Before moving on to some of the techniques below, try brayering on plain & glossy paper and compare the look to the look of a rubber brayer. I find rubber covers more evenly.

Tip 2:
Put rubber bands around your brayer for unique background. Ink the brayer and the rubberbands really well, then roll out. It looks like seaweed or spaghetti. Also try with string or yarn.

Tip 3:
After doing the tip above, cut away the rubberbands. You will still have some ink on your brayer where the bands were not. Creates a reverse pattern from the tip above. This works especially well with a rubber brayer.

Tip 4:
Wrap saran wrap around your brayer for another unique background.

Tip 5:
Try fabric netting or the netting from bags of oranges or marbles as above.

Tip 6:
Also use Crochet yarn.

Tip 7:
Use your acrylic brayer to roll out paperclay

Tip 8:
Use your acrylic brayer to make sharp creases in your card stock.

Tip 9:
Crinkle up a piece of Mulberry paper, ink up your brayer with the new Encore pads and give your Mulberry paper that gilded look.

Tip 10:
Faux Suede - squeeze brown liquid appliqué on wax paper or aluminum foil. Roll the brayer until it is coated and smooth. Roll an even coat of the liquid appliqué on your paper or a cut out image (try the gingerbread man die cut) then heat with a heat tool. This will give you a nice suede feel. Clean your brayer IMMEDIATELY! After you’ve made faux suede, you can cut it, tear it for a feathery edge, and stamp onto it. Embossing doesn’t work, as the powder will stick all over the suede

Tip 11:
Plop (another technical term) several colors of liquid appliqué or puffy paint next to each other on your wax paper, and mix only slightly with the brayer as you roll the appliqué onto the brayer. As you smooth it out on your paper, it will show variations in color. Puff it up into faux suede.

Tip 12:
Use your acrylic brayer with pigment ink on glossy (takes a little while to dry) don't roll use a quick sliding motion to brush the inked brayer across the card stock, wiggle if you want (the brayer silly!) You can make some awesome plaids or sunbursts.

Tip 13:
Try the same technique above but tap the brayer around in different areas for an all over color burst.

Tips for FOAM Brayer

Tip 1:
Use your foam brayer for an all over airbrush effect.

Tip 2:
Use your foam brayer with your stencils.

Tip 3:
Use with the KC pads for rainbow effect.

Tip 4:
Use your foam brayer with markers for an interesting look. I've heard that you can make some great tortoise shell, leopard or gemstone looks on glossy card stock.

Tip 5:
You can also use the spritz technique with the foam brayer for a watercolor effect.

Tip 6:
Use your brayer to roll two layers of a card that you’ve just glued so that they lay flat against each other.