If you’re anywhere near our neck of the woods, you recently dealt with a winter storm of…some proportion. Okay, okay, it may not have been an epic storm of icy legend, but it did make travel unsafe and kept many of us in the house through the weekend and into Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Now, with more ice and snow on the way this weekend, you might need a few easy crafts on hand to keep you or your family busy. Even if your local meteorologist isn’t calling for snow, keeping a fun project in your back pocket is a great idea. Here are a few crafty ideas for your next snow day.

More Snow?

I know, I know, bringing snow to a snowstorm seems counterproductive, but making paper snowflakes can be a fun tradition to start when it’s wintery outside. Make it a competition and see if you (or your spouse, children or both) can outduel each other and Mother Nature to make the perfect flake.

To start, you’ll need two essential craft supplies: office paper and a pair of scissors. You can choose an alternative but remember, lightweight papers, like wrapping or tissue paper, are easier to cut but might rip during your quest for the right shape. Medium to heavy weight paper—butcher paper, card stock, or text-weight poster paper—is harder to cut but is sturdier. Alright, you’re ready to begin! Just follow the instructions in the video below

The Weather Waits for Snow Man

Comic strips have long been a fixture in entertainment. Appearing every day in the newspaper (in color on Sundays), these panels might lead to a quippy punchline or form an entertaining narrative with text in balloons and captions. Making your own is easy, and it’s a great way to learn who in your house is actually funny and who just thinks they are. All you need is some paper, a pen or pencil and something to color with (optional), then follow the steps below and forget all about the snow.

1. Flip your sheet of paper horizontally, so that it’s longer than it is tall
2. Take your pencil and draw a line through the middle of the sheet. Don’t worry if it’s not quite straight, a little slant will give your comic some character.
3. Draw two lines equi-distant from each other, so that the sheet is split into thirds. You can make as many panels as you’d like, but we went with six.
4. Have fun! Fill the panels with characters of your own making and create a story of your own. Maybe we’ll be reading your comic strip in the paper one day.

What Does the Future Hold?

Fortune tellers (or cootie catchers in some parts) have been around for decades. While simple, they hold more joy and anticipation in one sheet than you might think. Remember spending time with your friends, picking your favorite numbers or colors as the opened the fortune teller this way and that, until you learned what your future held at the center? Well, you can recapture that fun in a few simple steps and learn when your snow day will end.

You don’t have to worry what tomorrow holds any more or wonder what’s in the cards, you can know it all right now with just a few quick folds

If you enjoyed these crafts, visit our blog for more printspiration and paper advocacy.