Silhouette America has a wonderful blog posting tutorials and showcasing their new products.  Following in its footsteps, thre is now a UK specific blog too :)
http://blog.silhouetteamerica.com/
http://silhouetteuk.blogspot.co.uk/

When I heard that there was a call to apply for the Silhouette UK 2016/2017 Design Team, I thought it sounded amazing.  I decided to apply, but without any expectations, as the crafters here in the UK are making some absolutely stunning work with their Silhouette machines.  Well, guess what?  I received a call on Wednesday and lovely Lisa Bird (Silhouette's new UK Marketting Executive) told me that I was in!!!  It's fair to say that I was stoked.

Every month, our team of eight will receive a fabulous box of goodies and then we will write blog posts with tutorials and projects.  On Friday our first parcel arrived, check out the loot:

I honestly can't wait to experiment with all the different products and share tutorials about my favourite ones.

Every week, Silhouette give a away a free shape, so the UK Blog have started a weekly design challenge using that free shape.  I'd really love to see your entries - here's my take on this week's shape.  I decided to make a frame with repetitions of the free shape and added a quote for Mother's Day using the Yellow Daisy font. 

If you are reading this Mummy Maddy, don't worry, I'll make you a surprise!

Here's some handy hints and tips that I've picked up to help making editing in Silhouette Studio faster.  If you are like me and love shortcut keys and sneaky tricks, then this is the video for you!

I was never really a candle person.  Until recently that is.   I blame my pal Lorna entirely for this.  Lorna loves snugly blankets and slippers, massages and of course, candles.  I went to a girls night at her house, in which she had a therapist doing treatments in her spare room.  We sat blethering in her conservatory when I noticed that she had seven, yes seven, candles in that room alone.  I teased her about this, but the shopper in me got to thinking.  We had just moved house and the renovation work had left rooms smelling dusty...

Now, I'm the kind of girl who throws herself whole-heartedly into a project, so became somewhat obsessed with researching the best candles.  Suitably briefed, I toddled off to town for some intensive olfacting.

Neom Happiness  £30 - 35 hours burn time.  I received this as a birthday pressie from Lorna, the girl who started all this candle madness off in the first place.   Neom is a luxurious British brand that focusses on organic, aromatherapy ingredients.  The Happiness blend is white neroli, mimosa and lemon.  The burns very evenly and fills the room with a beautiful classy spa smell.  9/10

Diptyque Baies £20 - 30 hours burn time.  I was rather intimidated by this fashionista brand, which is all Karl Lagerfeld this, Anna Wintour that.  I decided however, that it would be remiss of me to miss this out in my round-up, so bought a mini Baies candle - Rose and Blackcurrant leaves.  Is it nice?  Yes.  Is it worth all the hype?  Not in my opinion. 7.5/10

Jo Malone Wood Sage and Sea Salt £42 - 45 hours burn time.  Jo Malone is the name in candles, so I braced the Edinburgh howling wind and rain yesterday to procure a candle for this review.  I'm  so good to you guys!!  It comes in a fancy-smancy box, all ribboned up and I like that the candle has a nice shiny lid.   The fragrance is a nice, cosy evening smell which is airing on the masculine side.  8.5/10

Ecoya Vanilla Bean / Coconut and Elderflower £15 - 18 hours burn time.  I bought my pal Christine the Vanilla Bean candle and her feedback was good, but not quite as good as Jo Malone.  I received the Coconut and Elderflower one from Lorna, this time for Christmas.  The dinky size ensured a lovely even burn and the pretty pot as now been happily re-purposed.  I think my only criticism of this luxury Australian brand is that all the of fragrances air a little too much on the sweet side for me.  7.5/10

Paddywax Cucumber and Basil  candle £15 with 60 hours burn time are my ultimate favourites from an American company available from John Lewis.  I love the smell and they burn well.  Soy candles have a lower melting point so have negligible black soot and throw the scent better.  They are also better for your lungs.   My only gripe is the rustic, recycled packaging, which isn't my style, although I recently bought another candle from this brand in a nice Japanese style bowl.  John Lewis currently have  a curated, boutique range called Loved & Found and they have included smaller sized Paddywax tins that burn for 15 hours for only £5.  9/10

Molton Brown Mulberry & Thyme £36 about 60 hours burn time.  I admit that I bought the range mainly due to its pretty glacier green colour that matches our bedroom.  Luckily, I'm a big fan of crisp and fresh citrus smells, so I enjoy the candle very much.  I also plan to use the glass jar for my make-up brushes once the candle has run out. 8.5/10

Orla Kiely Basil and Mint £20 up to 50 hours burn time.  I love Orla Kiely's retro patterns and this candle is very cute with the iconic stem print.  It comes with a little beer mat type coaster for heat protection.  The fragrance is nice ,however the candle tunnels quite badly, so I need to use a tin foil collar to remedy. 7/10

Fired Earth Peppermint Tea and Thyme £20 - 55 hours burn time.  I bought this candle in smaller 35 hour tin from Waitrose, but the internet denies all knowledge of this product's existence!  Not particularly impressed with this one, as it didn't throw the scent and I had to work hard to stop it tunnelling 4/10 

House of Fraser Linea Candles £15 - 50 hours burning time.  I got loads of these in the 70% off sale, gifting some to Christine for 'candle homework'.  We were both hugely disappointed.  There are designed as dupes of Jo Malone, but they tunnel badly and have barely any smell at all.  Only plus is that I use the lids on other candles  1/10

True Grace Vine Tomato £16 - 40 hours burn time.  My foodie friend Linh bought me this candle many years ago.  It languished unused until I dusted it down following my candle renaissance.  Somewhat incongruously, the scent exactly matches the fuzzy green vine of a tomato plant so it's great for the kitchen.  It appears that this is the marmite of candles, my pals either love or hate it. 8/10

St Eval Bay and Rosemary £9 - 45 hours burn time.  I love the smell of rosemary in cooking so opted for this candle without testing from eBay after hearing great things about the Cornish brand.  I'm not so keen on the smell, but Robbie liked it, well as much as he likes any candle.  I wish more places sold this brand, as I'd like to test their other candles and hopefully find one that I like better.  5/10

H&M Birchwood £7.99 - 40 hours burn time.  I didn't expect this candle to be particular great, but I have a weakness for shiny copper things for our spare room (see my Blushing Over Copper post).  The fragrance reminded me of my favourite shower gel Silver Birch, which I think is technically for guys, by Molton Brown.  Sadly, my low expectations were proven correct, it was an absolutely terrible burn and scent didn't throw or last at all. 3/10

Woodwick Hearthwick Evening Bonfire £22.76 - 80 hours burn time.  This large boat shaped candle has a long wick that is supposed to crackle like a hearth.  I was torn, because it was exactly what I was after for our living room, but when I read reviews many people had trouble keeping it lit.  The candle was in and out of my basket many times, but in the end, the lady in the shop convinced me to give it a go on the promise of a refund if I didn't like it.  The crackling was oversold, it made some noise initially then it faded to a murmur.  The smell was nice and cosy.  The tin foil collar was a must to prevent tunnelling, which was a shame as the candle should have been a focal point. 6.5/10

You'll notice that Yankee candles are not mentioned here.  It suffices to say I'm not a big fan.  I'm sure there are nice options in their huge range, but my experience to date has found they often smell quite artificial.

It is important that during the initial burn, the wax pool reaches the edges.  Otherwise, the next few burns will likely burrow down the centre of the jar, rather than across.  This burn pattern, once established, is difficult to rectify.  If a wick has been chosen that isn't adequate for the candle diameter, it will tunnel regardless of how well you follow guidelines, so smaller votives and multi-wick candles can be a good choice.  A general rule of thumb is to allow 1 hour burn time per inch of diameter for the first burn.

Before every burn, trim the wick to about half a centimetre to stop it from smoking.

If you snuff or blow the candle out it will smoke.  Instead, I take a long metal skewer that I got in a set from the pound shop and dunk the lit wick into the liquid wax.  This method  causes no smoke and also primes the wick with wax ready for the next time you trim and light it.

To prevent tunnelling, or to remedy it, I'm a big fan of the tin foil fix.

A long lighter, also procured from Poundland, is great to stop your fingers getting burnt.

More tips for the super keen here.

Wax melts, or wax tarts, are little lumps of wax without a wick.  They are designed to be used in a wax warmer, which as far as I can gather, is pretty much the same as an essential oil burner.  There are electric ones available too, which is nice as it stops the worry of having a naked flame.  I like the idea that these are a lot smaller so different smells can be sampled. 

I popped a little chunk of this  WoodWick mini melt into an empty metal cup from a tea light  and sat it near our new bio ethanol fire.  The heat from the fire melted the wax and gave a lovely smell of burning logs.  The mini melt cost just £1.89 and it will fill a few tea light cups, so I count this as a super bargain!