DIY Cupcake Stands

Good morning my crafty comrades! I am in a wonderful mood today :) It's a lovely fall day outside, with the beautiful colors of changing leaves! Just look at the lovely tree outside my apartment. . 

Not to mention I completed an entire to-do list, and my Bubby isn't even home from work yet! Which gives me time to write this post! And this post has been a long time coming! So here we go :)

This Tuesday (Nov. 8th) is my Nana's 66th birthday! We don't normally make a big to-do about birthdays, coming from such a large family, but I really felt the need to make this birthday really special for her. So I've decided to throw her a surprise party! The party will be this coming Saturday, and I've been so worried about getting this project done in time, but thank God, I finally finished it!

I got the tutorial for this DIY dollar store cupcake stand from Joy's Hope 

(This really is just an amazing blog. If you go check it out I highly recommend that you read "Joy's Story". I don't know Julie (The woman who writes the blog), but her story is so inspirational, and so worth the time of reading it. A word of advice, keep some tissues handy.)

Here are my finished products

Not too shabby, I think :) I tried to follow the tutorial to a t, but encountered a few problems. So here's how this thing went down ;)

:Materials:

Metal trays ($1 a piece from the Dollar Tree)

Glass candlestick holders (Picked up at various thrift stores)

Spray paint primer (I used Krylon indoor/outdoor Primer in White)

Your choice of spray paint colors ( I used Krylon indoor/outdoor spray paint in *Gloss Watermelon And *Satin Pistachio)

Adhesive *(Loctite 2 party epoxy)

I just love this color combo :)

I started by laying down newspapers to protect the floor/ground. In the pictures you will see that I did it inside, but I HIGHLY recommend that you take this outdoors. It was raining here, so I opened the door and closed off the room from the rest of the house to contain the fumes.

After I was all set up, I made sure that my trays and candlestick holders were wiped down clean and dry, and painted them with the primer. I did several light coats of the primer, holding the can several inches away and spraying back and forth across the tray in strips, letting the tray dry completely in between coats. Doing it this way helps to avoid the paint running. 

{I didn't remove my stickers, but that's up to you. You can tell it's there afterwards, but not very much}

{These are after the first coat of primer. I did 3 or 4 light coats.}

If you are thinking of skipping the primer step, I encourage you not to. It really makes a difference in how even and smooth the paint is at the end.

After the the last coat of primer was dry I began applying the color using the same light coating technique as before, and allowing it to dry completely in between. You WILL need more than one coat, trust me. After I sprayed the first coat I thought I might have gotten it all covered, but it will begin to show as it's drying.



{I wore rubber gloves and held these out the door while I sprayed them to get better coverage}



*I'm usually a fan of flat colors as opposed to glossy, but that wasn't the case with these. The green (Pistachio) paint was satin finish (which is closer to flat) and the pink (Watermelon) was glossy. I really liked the glossy look on the finished product.

After all the pieces were dry I began putting it together, which is where the real fun started :/

Ok, so you might as well learn this now. I have the WORST time with adhesives. I mean, if something is going to wrong in my projects it's most likely going to have something to do with adhesive, and this project was no different.

In the Joy's Hope tutorial, she used the super glue adhesive from the dollar store, and since I always try to follow the directions I purchased and used this too. Although this was on an earlier one I tried to make. Pictured here.


At first I thought that everything was a success, until the next day when I took it to show my mother, and it fell apart in the back seat of my car. So that night I scraped off all the residual glue and paint, repainted it, and tried once again to use the super glue. It ended up falling apart AGAIN, so I figured I need a different adhesive. My mother had some Liquid Nails, and suggested I try it, so I did. (((Btw, if you look on the back of Liquid Nails in the fine print it says "Contains a chemical KNOWN to cause cancer" (Emphasis on know, mine). I mean, you'd think that would be in bold print on the front instead of hidden on the back, but whatever. I now refer to it exclusively as cancer glue.))) Well anyway, the cancer glue was a no go as well. I  thought it was working after it dried, but it came apart as soon as I picked it up. So I once again scraped the glue and paint off, and repainted it, and went back to the drawing board. I'll spare you the pain of hearing the rest in detail. Long story short, I don't think there's an adhesive in this town I didn't try. After much googling, debating, researching, and complaining I asked (more like demanded) that Adam call his fix-it-all father in hopes that he knew something else I could try. He suggested using 2 part epoxy, and he was right (duh).

Back to the tutorial

So where were we. . . oh yes. After all the paint dries, it's time for assembly. Using gloves (You do NOT want epoxy on your skin) I mixed the epoxy, and applied it to the bottom of the candle stick and pressed it firmly onto the metal tray, and while holding it in place, I used a paper towel to wipe off any excess glue that squished out.


I didn't measure to perfectly center them, but if you want to, please do so before you mix the epoxy. Epoxy sets up VERY fast, so you have less than a minute from the time you mix it to get it in place, and cleaned up.



For multi-layer trays please allow each glued on item to dry before attempting to stack and glue them together. 


***These trays are NOT food friendly! Make sure that when using these trays, you use cupcake liners, doilys, decor paper, etc to prevent the food from resting on the spray paint.*** 


I am currently researching ways to make these totally food friendly, and will update when I find out :)


Now the only thing left to do is enjoy your trays!!

Taadaa! Lol :) I certainly can't wait to use them at my Grandmother's surprise party :)

If you have an questions, comments, concerns, or suggestions, feel free to contact me!


Love
Bubsy