My PTI Delightful Dahlia Additions

Remember sometime ago I was playing with my PTI Delightful Dahlia Additions, here, here, and here.

I think I am truly "addicted" to this set because I really want to work on aligning the 3-step stamp in more precise and efficient way. And to explore different ink colour combination out of my existing collection. Also, be able to line up the die cut with the stamp image nicely. I struggled with that a lot and I'll talk about how to resolve it later on.

This Pinterest board continues to serve as a source of inspiration.

To start, I want to get a couple of red dahlia like this:
from the PTI design team.

The PTI formula seems to use the Pure Poppy ink (a bright red) for all three steps. But since I don't have this red ink, I try to substitute with Memento Lady Bug. The three layers are not as distinctive, but it's rather close. As I only have a small cube of the Lady Bug ink, after a few impressions I found it less juicy so I try to look for another substitution from my ink stack. I found the Mama Elephant Apple ink. This is the pigment ink (not dye) but colour-wise they do match. This ink also gives good even impression and I am glad to have this one. And it doesn't seem to dry too slow I don't really have to wait for it to dry before touching it. I kinda touch it and it doesn't smear.

All 3 layers with Memento Lady Bug (dye) ink.


Later I experiment with a darker red (PTI Scarlet Jewel) for the two inner layers.

But I don't really like it I think the red is too dark.

So I try another lighter red (PTI Autumn Rose) for one inner layer only.

Much better now (to my eyes).

So I mass produce(stamp) this combination on the Recollection 110 lb paper. As my Memento Lady Bug cube dries out, I substitute with Mama Elephant Apple ink.

There is a trick I would like to share to align the 3-steps stamp. That was my major struggle which took me almost 3 hours to figure this out.


First, try to find out the two "lines" on the stamp. (I circle it in red).
I would try to position the stamp so that those two lines are pointing downwards. So it's a bit easier to estimate the orientation when I stamp other layers.

Then, stamp the smallest inner layer FIRST (the number 3 on the above diagram). I used to stamp the biggest flower first and I found it so much easier to do it the other way. The reason is that the inner layer usually would be the darkest colour, so when I stamp the next lighter colour layer, it's easier to align when the bottom layer is more visible.

So the stamp order would be 3, 2, then the 1 (the largest flower image).

This way, I stamp the flower much faster than before, and also, the alignment is almost perfect every time.

I hope this trick would help you and I'll to share my other colour combo and die cut trick in the upcoming posts.