Stamp woes

I really wanted to love the Triangle Turnabout stamp by Concord & 9th but so far, that isn't the case. The 6" stamp looks life the first view in the graphic below. Once you've stamped your paper with the first color, you rotate it and stamp again.

Update at the end of this post!

My first attempt was truly my mistake. I thought I could skip making a jig to line up the stamp on my Misti. I cannot imagine attempting to use this stamp without a Misti but even with that tool, you need to line up the stamp just so, hence the recommendation of the jig. 

Oh boy....those aren't lined up at all! 

I made the jig, lined up the stamp for placement and attempted this again with another 6x6 inch piece of paper.

The stamp is stained from the red dye used in the first attempt.

I began with blue and then used yellow. It wasn't looking too bad until you look at the upper left corner in the bottom photo below. I didn't think I had stretched the polymer stamp but that corner of the stamp wasn't completely squared up. It doesn't show in the first stamping, but successive stampings make this more evident. 

I stopped after the third color. It wasn't going to get better and something else was bothering me. See the blotch here and the line in a triangle below? That isn't user error, those are flaws in the stamp. The line is the more obvious of the two as seen in the images that follow.

On my third attempt, I taped a smaller piece of paper to the cardboard jig and turned that rather than just the cardstock. The result is better but certainly not perfect as shown in the demo videos.

My attempts certainly don't look like the examples from Concord & 9th:

I haven't given up as I do see improvement, but the flaws in the stamp really bother me and I will be contacting the company.

Lessons learned by this:

• Don't expect perfection on the first attempt
• Look for videos whenever a technique is new
• Don't use Pampers Baby Wipes to clean the stamps.  I didn't mention that above but I did try to use them because they were nearby. I've used baby wipes before, just not Pampers. They made a mess. They tend to shred and leave lint. That had nothing to do with the blotch shown the stamp flaws photos. I used Lawn Fawn's Stamp Shammy after seeing the mess Pampers left. 

Update on July 12th!

I contacted Concord & 9th on July 9, explained my experience and included photos. I heard from them this morning (July 12th). They agreed it was a manufacturing problem, not user related. They asked for my address (I did not buy directly from them) and have received notification that the replacement was shipped this morning.

Mistakes will happen. How a person or company rectifies them is what is important. I am happy that I will be able to play with a new stamp in a few days and hope to improve my technique enough to share something beautiful soon.