Find your way around

Challenges & Events

Basics

More ideas

Things to do

Brayer

Do you have a brayer but are not sure how to use it? Read on!

"Ink and paper, paint and paper, you can use it all with a roller in your hand!"
~Susan, PaperCraftCentral.com

Use and Cleaning Basics

When I first got mine I was at a loss about how to use it. These days it is a handy tool that couldn't be easier to use! I'll tell you what I have learned about it so far.

The Brayer

A brayer is a very useful tool for stamping and scrap booking projects. It looks like a small paint roller made of rubber instead of sheepskin. Because it is rubber, you can treat it like your rubber stamps and use ink or paint on it. Just as there are many different ways to use stamps, there are many applications for this tool.

Some of the ways I have used a brayer are:

To apply paint or ink to large surfaces
To apply layers of overlapping colour to card backgounds
To ink up large rubber stamps to ensure even coverage
To smooth out and flatten freshly glued surfaces (thus squeezing out air bubbles)
To make a faux torn edge effect with paper for my cards or layouts
To make an image based on crayon
To make an embossed image stand out
To add a sheen with metallic ink or paint

To ink it up and use it to lay down a colour:

Choose a large ink pad such as a Stampin' Up! rubber stamp pad

Roll the clean brayer over the pad in one direction, lift off the pad and start again, rolling over the whole pad. (If you push the roller back and forth across the ink pad you will ink up only one section of it. The method I have just described ensures a more even ink coverage)

Inking the brayer

Rolling it in the opposite direction

Roll the ink onto your paper or cardstock in one continuous motion first, then roll back and forth over the area to spread out the ink and enrich the colour, gaining every bit of use out of your ink

Rolling it across the card stock

Stamping across layers of brayered colour

To load the roller with paint:

Choose your colour(s) and squeeze some out on some plastic or acrylic surface that is large enough to take the paint and the roller moving over it. (I have used ice-cream tub lids, shirt box lids, sheets of plastic wrap, or even a plastic bag spread out flat! The advantage of using a plastic bag is that you can fold it over your paint if you need to use it later, and the paint will still usable for quite awhile)
Spread the paint our with your roller a bit, then push the roller across the paint in one direction, lifting off and returning to your starting point to do it again, much like you would have done with your ink pad. You will be aiming to cover your roller evenly and not leave any gaps of rubber on the roller
You can then use the roller on your project, and by rolling it back and forth over the area you want covered you will lay down more paint and blend your colours more with each pass

Covering the stamp with paint

To overlap colours:

Choose the colours you want to overlap
Start with the lightest colour and ink up the roller
Apply your colour
Clean the roller (see how below) and ink up with the next colour, then apply as before

When overlapping colours, remember that two colours mixed together will make a third, so decide if you want that effect or need to lay the different colours next to each other rather than overlapping them.

Stamping across layers of brayered colour

To Clean the Roller of Ink:

My roller is one that allows me to snap it out of the handle. Since it is rubber, I can then wash it under running water, or apply stamp cleaning mist or Stazon ink cleaner to the rubber and then wash off
Snap the roller back into the handle and run it over some scrap paper to dry it off and remove any lingering ink stains
If you cannot remove your roller, apply stamp cleaning mist or Stazon ink cleaner to the roller and scrub it off with a stamp cleaning pad or an old wet washer

To Clean the Roller of Paint

If the paint is water based acrylic, clean under a running tap
If the paint is oil based, clean with turpentine or methylated spirits, according to the instructions given by the paint manufacturer for cleaning brushes
However you clean the roller, I recommend running it over some scrap paper afterward to ensure you have removed as much of the colour as possible and dried the roller off. Otherwise your next project could turn out to be a different colour than you wanted

Now you have the basics for using and cleaning a brayer, why not try some of the other ways of using it for your next project?

Top of page

Return from Brayer page to Papercraft Tools | Return to PaperCraftCentral Home Page