I am really looking forward to bringing an interesting spin to this months theme of toys and games. Different to kids crafts - this theme is not necessarily child related and can be toys and games for any age group. Please send in your ideas, tutorials and articles to whipup[at]gmail.com - don’t forget to read our submission guidelines if submitting an article.

Recently we have really cut down watching TV at our house. We were noticing an ugly trend in ourselves (my partner and I) and in our two children of becoming bored and boring. We were losing our creativity and imaginations and becoming snarky and prickly towards each other much too easily. Since putting a limit on TV (in fact we disabed it so the kids can not just automatically turn it on whenever they feel like it), we have noticed that we and they play more games, accessing the games cupboard and craft boxes and book shelves more readily. At night we have been playing various board games, the whole families favourite is blokus and the kids play Uno and pick up sticks and have recently become obsessed with Monopoly (oh dear!). The drawing books have made a big come back and the kids love to play schools with each other now that my youngest is learning to read and spell. We also play word games with each other and charades … Some of the kids favourite things to do are really so very simple - dressing up the cat and organising their endless collections of stuff (see pics). love to hear your suggestions and ideas for more family friendly games.

This month I hope to discover more games and toys that can be played with kids with adults and with the whole family - I will be hunting for games and toys for outside, sports games, dangerous games, imaginative and playful games - so send in your ideas whipup[at]gmail.com

greeting arts has made a tutorial for her scrappy cartwheel dolls quilt that was showcased in our mini quilts whiplash contest a while back.