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

2019 #1 Mustard: Wrapped Journal with JoFy {by Anneke de Clerck}

2019 Topic 1: Mustard

Anneke continues our mustard theme with a gorgeous fresh and funky wrapped journal. She shows a brilliant technique to make a one layer journal seem multi layered and the way she continues the vibrancy onto the inside cover is the perfect finish.

Stockist info for 2019 products is available here.

Hi everyone, it's Anneke with you today, and I'd like to share with you a wrapped mixed media journal I made.

As you know I love making my own art journals. I make them as big or as small as I wish and what is more important: I fill them with my favorite papers. For this color challenge I combined the beautiful Fresco Finish Mustard Pickle with various shades of blue, green and pink to create a one layer cover.

To decorate the cover I worked with stamps from the new JOFY 72 and JOFY 73  stamp sets. 

This is how the finished journal looks like when it's closed. To cut the cover I used the Sizzix "Wrapped Journal" die by Eileen Hull. After running the die plus a strip of watercolor paper through my die cutting machine I ended up with a ready made cover, fold marks and holes included. A very quick way to cut a versatile cover without measuring.

I started by applying paint to the cover with a plastic card. I used Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics Mermaid, Caribbean Sea, Beach Hut, Candy Floss, Blah Mange and Mustard Pickle. I added some lime Amsterdam acrylic paint as well.

Before the paint was totally dry,  I toned down the colors by applying Fresco Finish chalk acrylic in the colour Snowflake randomly.

I stamped the beautiful flower from the JOFY 73 set 3 times on the painted background using Archival Ink Jet Black.

Next I painted the areas around the flowers with one layer of Fresco Finish Snowflake. After drying I added a layer of Mustard Pickle. Because the Mustard Pickle is a translucent paint, parts of the white paint show through randomly, and that's what I like.

I've painted the inside cover as well.

For the inserts I've cut 20 papers out of mixed media paper (size 11 x 19,5 cm). I folded each paper in half and nested 5 papers into each other to make 4 signatures.

The binding can be done in different ways. I used elastic band that I've 'woven' through the holes. I ended up with 4 strips of elastic band on the inside to hold the inserts in place. 

This is how the binding looks like along the spine.

I'm very fond of this type of binding because the signatures can be removed temporarily to work in.

I covered the flowers with a mask before adding some stamping on the background. I stamped circles from the JOFY 73 set with Fresco Finish Haystack and squares from the JOFY 72 set with Archival Ink Jet Black.

I 'wrote' the word 'bloom' by sponging through the JOFY PS008 stencil using Fresco Finish Snowflake.

 I added shadow to the flowers with a black Stabilo pen.

I'm very happy with how my new art journal turned out. And I love the fact that it's filled with my favorite mixed media papers. Can't wait to start working in it :)

When closed the journal measures approx. 13 x 11cm. Even on this rather small cover the XL JOFY flowers look nice, don't they?

I've chosen to work with a one layer technique on the cover. I've experienced how a one layer cover remains undamaged no matter how often I pick the journal up or how often I threw it in my handbag or suitcase.  All the layers of paint make the cover very sturdy and nothing is glued on so nothing can fall apart. 

Mustard Pickle is not a color I would automatically pick to create a project. For this challenge I had to and I'm happy I did! It's a beautiful color that matches well with the bright colors of the flowers.

I hope I could inspire you to make a project with Courtney's beautiful Mustard Pickle paint. I would love to see what you come up with! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Anneke

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Stockist info for the new 2019 products can be found here