Heart-Shaped Crafts

Box Full O' Hearts

This decorated cigar box created by Holly Christian is for the serious crafter who's willing to get out the protective eyewear and soldering gun. It's made of zinc and brass shim; the dots of solder really make it look regal. For a full list of supplies and directions, get TinWork. The book is filled with high-quality projects that are well conceived and beautifully rendered.

A Sweetheart of a Soap

Here's a sweet twist on soap-on-a-rope. The simplest route to your heart soap is to buy and melt red or pink 100 percent vegetable glycerin soaps, let the stuff re-harden on a cookie sheet, then cut it with heart-shaped cookie cutters. Carefully punch a hole with a hole puncher, string a ribbon through and you have one sweetheart of a soap.

For those who want a more "homemade" product, buy plain unscented, uncolored glycerin (available in one-pound cylinders) and add your own fragrance oils and colorings while melting.

Tip: We found it much simpler (especially when working with children) to melt the soap in the microwave rather than on the stovetop, which is often recommended by craft books. Either way, it will take some trial and error to figure out how long to heat the soap before it melts. You don't want it to boil (or your soap will harden with lots of bubbles). If the soap won't melt, it's not 100 percent glycerin or it's hard milled.

Photos by Charles Brooks