2019 #2 Brayers: Be Extraordinary with JoFY {by Miriam Grazier}

2019 Topic 2: Brayers

Wow what a fun colour combo, the soft greys and pinks should remind me of those 1980's pastel shades, BUT with the modern touch of a new JOFY bloom, it brings these colours bang on trend. Those dusky pink shades are the peak of interior design-lush right now!! ~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Miriam  with you today, and I'd like to share with you a fairly simple looking card using a brayer in different ways.

A brayer is my 'go to' tool.  I use one almost every time I craft.  I normally have two smooth brayers, a large and small.  But there have been so many times that I have wished for a brayer that was just a bit bigger than the small one.  Then hey presto, the clever folk at PaperArtsy HQ introduce a branded brayer that is just that! It's like they have been reading my mind.  For my project I wanted to show you that you don't need to be arty to use a brayer and that you can use it to actually help save you time. I have kept my techniques fairly simple so that whether you are a new crafter or an experienced crafter you can achieve great results and a project that you are happy with.

I started my project using the technique shown by Leandra back in 2015.  You can see the You Tube tutorial here.  This is a great way to create a quick and colourful background.   I love using all types of card stock and tissue paper for this, even book pages. 

It's even a quick and easy way to use to stamp your main image on which you then can simply cut out and use as it is or build upon as I have done in my project. 

I even learnt a new brayer technique, which I may now be a little bit addicted too!  It was shown by Sara Naumann and is where you layer a stencil underneath your card stock and brayer paint over the top.  I honestly thought that this would not work or end in too much unwanted paint on my project, but I was really pleasantly surprised that I achieved a result I was delighted with, first time!  I would really encourage you to watch Sara's demo.  

I also used a soft sponge brayer to stencil Chalk Fresco Acrylic Paint through one of the amazing new JOFY stencils.  I love the bold images of these and they really looked quite subtle on my background.

One really useful tip that I can share is perfect with the new JoFY release.  The flowers in this release are quite large.  Once I had inked my stamps and put it onto the card stock, I used my clean brayer to roll over the top of the acrylic block.  This helps ensure that you get a perfectly stamped image using a large or detailed stamp.  Great idea if you don't have a stamping platform.

Brayers are also useful to apply an even coat of paint onto a stamp as I have done here.

I really hope that I have encouraged you to dust that brayer off, or even buy one.  They are a really useful tool to have in your craft stash.  You can do so many things with them and i have only just scratched the surface.  I absolutely love the new PaperArtsy brayer.  It is the right size, a good weight, and worked like a dream.  Absolutely perfect for your mixed media projects.  I was itching to add more detail and technique to my project but wanted to keep it simple in the hope that it inspires you to have a go yourselves.  The best thing for me is that you can create a whole background so quickly and then use it for multiple projects.  It's great if you don't have much time to spare.  

Thank you for joining me this evening.  Happy crafting.... or should I say happy brayering! 

Blog: Miriam's Creative Dreams