Ionotropic hydrogels are an important class of biomaterials with applications in the fields of controlled drug delivery, cellular immobilization, and biomimicry. This talk will describe the use of paper templates to fabricate shaped films of ionotropic hydrogels. Solutions of polymers such as alginic acid, carrageenan, and carboxymethyl cellulose form films with defined shapes when brought into contact with patterned templates of paper wetted with aqueous solutions of multivalent cations. This method allows the production of complex 2D and 3D shapes, such as interlocking rings and Möbius strips. The shaped films can be made magnetically responsive by using paramagnetic ions like holmium as the cross-linking ions or by suspending ferrite microparticles in the hydrogels. Heterogeneous films of ionotropic hydrogels can be fabricated through the use of more complex templates. These heterogeneous structures include single films where a pattern of one hydrogel polymer is surrounded by another polymer (“gel-in-gel” structures), multilayered hydrogels, and hydrogels that contain a gradient in the concentration of cross-linking agent.