Valentine "WIN!"

I entered a Valentine contest! Yep. Me. My niece emailed me the other night and said, I heard this contest on the radio, make a valentine for Alpine Jeweler's, and you can win a loose 1/2 carat diamond. I have wanted to enter before, so I thought , eh, why not?

Well, I'm doing school. Lots of school. It seems to take every dang second I have, but I decided to do this valentine in my spare time. I started on the 3rd of February. The contest ended today.

This is what my kitchen table has been looking like for almost 2 weeks... well, 10 days anyways... :)

OK!!! SO!!! I won second place!!!! It was a $500 dollar gift certificate!!

Wanna see my valentine???

Here is what it looked like when I thought I finished it....

Here's an upclose of the top of it. I used wire for the handle, and then crystal beads. I used my cuttlebug and cut out letters, about 5 of each letter, and then I glued them together so they looked like chipboard.

Do you get what it says??? Hubby did not get it. It says, You Are My Love Potion #9!
Here is the back, I didn't want it to be plain, so I added a bunch of hearts on it. Each little tube has its own kind of candy, and each one has a test tube/flask as a tag on it. My cardstock is from Stampin' UP!, and one of the designer papers, but all of the other papers are from Express the Moment. Ones I got in a kit last year for valentines. The best part? I didn't buy any new supplies, they were all ones I had on hand! Yep!!

The only thing I had to buy, was some candy for it... I had some, but I spent $2.25 cents on other candy to finish filling it. Here's a side view for you. I put a test tube on the bottom side.
For the base, each tube is in its own separate little box. Then I glued all the boxes together, with the heart in the center of them. I then did separate sides to keep them glued together. They sit on two squares of cardstock, which sits on cardstock that I made into a fan fold, then glued together. That sits on 2 more layers of cardstock and then a layer of chipboard.
Here's a close up of the tags for each bottle.This tag is on the side of the heart, it is where the message is printed. Remember back in October when I went to Utah and saw that cute tag with the cauldron on it? Well, this is it, Valentine style! I didn't have the same punches, but the look is the same.
Here's the backside of the tag, it opens up to write in.
So, I thought I was finished, I called them to get the exact rules.... seems like you had to make the Valentine be addressed to them. Uh. Back to the table. I punched out a couple of hearts, stamped some letters, punched them and came up with their name on the top...
Finished!!!
Way fun to make. Way funner to get $500!!! (I already bought me some drop pearl earrings with emeralds on them! :) )

Hope you like!!