Multiple Uses for A Cookie Cutter

The cookie cutter - the multitasker and team player. The secret is now out! It's THE household "employee" to have around your house! Whether holidays or school days, children or adults, work or craft; the cookie cutter should be the next necessary item added to everyone's "must-have-around-the-house" tool box!

Made of metal or plastic, large or small, theme or everyday - depending on what you are using it for, there's a cookie cutter out there that can help make your life easier! Here are just 10 uses for a cookie cutter! Give it some thought within your daily activities and you'll be surprised at how many times you grab a cookie cutter and there's no dough in sight!

1. Make Fun-dwiches - When making sandwiches, whether for home or lunch box, assemble the sandwich and then use a cookie cutter and cut out inside the crusts. THEN give it to the child! You can further enhance the sandwich for those picky-eaters and embellish it with facial features or other decoration! Making Fun-dwiches is a great way to get kids to eat, introduce them to other meats and sandwich makings and know that they will have a healthy lunch!

2. A cake decorating tool. For decorating an iced cake, lightly press the cookie cutter into the frosting. This makes a very light impression to use as a pattern. Now, take your icing tube and just outline the impression and even decorate inside the design! Place the cookie cutter on the iced cake, and use it as a "sprinkle" pattern - while the cookie cutter is lightly sitting on the top of the iced cake, sprinkle colored sugar, gemmies, sprinkles, whatever you call those colorful little decorations, INSIDE the cookie cutter. When you remove the cookie cutter, you have a beautiful design or decoration on your cake top!

3. Egg-wich Breakfast! Kids love it! Just take a piece of bread and butter it on both sides. Using the child's favorite cookie cutter shape, cut out the center of the bread. Now you have a piece of bread to toast AND a piece of bread outline of the same shape. In a hot, buttered skillet, place the bread outline. Give it a few seconds head start and then crack an egg INTO the outline of the bread. The egg will spread out into the open shape. Once the egg has cooked and the bread "toasted" on that side, flip it over and let it cook and toast on the second side. Once done, slide it onto a plate, jelly the bread shape and watch the child's face light up and eat a great breakfast!

4. Use as a kid's craft tool. Whether a stencil, Play Doh cutter, mud-pie maker, clay mold, to draw shapes for coloring pages or counting lessons; just use the cookie cutter to trace, stamp out or design new creations! The plastic ones work really well for this. They are vey easy for little hands to handle.

5. Craft Die Cuts - just trace and cut! Using acid free cardstock, you can make you own scrapbook embellishments. You can make die cuts for party decorations, class projects, holiday decorations, name tags, gift tags or most any craft where you need a paper embellishment. Cut some hearts, decorate and put a hole in the top of each die cut and string with yarn to creat a necklace!

6. Make teaching aids. Cut shapes from the cookie cutters to use as flash cards. For teaching numbers, letters,arithmetic equations, even a question on one side and the answer on the other. Having "fun" flash cards will help the kids want to learn! Throw the set of flash cards in the back pack and while the kids wait for the bus or wait for class to start, the kids can all have fun learning!

7. To Do List - or should I say To Do Shapes! Use the cookie cutter to cut a bunch of different die cut shapes and write a household chore on the die cut. Anytime a child wants to earn some allowance, they can choose a die cut with a chore!

8. Emergency phone numbers for kids. Just seeing a list of phone numbers might further scare a child in need, so cut some shapes with the cookie cutter, and place a sticker of the emergency facility on the die cut and then the phone number. Stick the shapes in a book, on the wall, anywhere you want them available to your child. When in need of assistance, the child can find the shapes (instead of looking for a list) and find the sticker for the number needed, then can just dial.

9. Doing cement work on your new patio or garden boxes? Everyone likes to post a "signature" in the cement work they do. Usually you would just write your name and date. Well, add some fun and a design - make imprints with cookie cutters...THEN sign and date! Get a large duck and a small duck cookie cutter. Make 2 large ducks (mother and father), followed by several smaller ducks (however many kids you have). Under each duck, write the persons name and then "sign" it with "The (your last name here)" and a date. What a remembrance that will make!

10. Note cards/Stationery - using the larger cookie cutters, trace on nice writing paper for stationery or use cardstock for note cards! These are great for Valentine's Day notes, lunch box notes or other times you just want a little piece of paper for a note and you'll get a little smile to go along with it!

Of course, you can also use them as, well...cookie cutters. Whether a holiday or just a cookie day - sugar cookies are the best! I used to collect cookie cutters at places I went on vacation. You always want a souvenir of some kind from everywhere you go, what better way to remember your travels then while munching on a cookie as you relive those wonderful times! They are also a great "Kid entertainer". Give the kids some sugar cookie cutouts, some icing and candies, and they'll be entertained for a LONG time!

Yep, a cookie cutter is a great addition to any household. Versatile, multi-tasker, team player and just a general good guy to have around!