DIY Sturdy Display Stands

For my Easter dining room table display I was all geared up to

make some cute candlestick cake plates (like I had seen tutorials

 for on several blogs like this one) to put Easter items on.

I'm sure they would be fine to put light-weight items on

 like sisal bunnies, etc. but I started thinking about 

making stands that would be sturdy enough to use in

 the future for heavier items too. Maybe even in for

food buffets, etc.

In looking at the real elevated cake stands that I have, the

bases seemed to be fairly wide at the bottom to give more

stability...almost like an upside-down vase. 

My own hoarder house turned up several items that could

be used to follow the basic candlestick tutorials but use

vases instead of candlesticks. The glass vases also have

more weight which will probably help the stands' stability.

Here is a low glass vase (previously painted white),

a lonely saucer and a mis-placed plate combo...

This is a thrift store footed vase and another odd plate...

These are small baking dishes I got several years ago when

I thought I was going to make the neighbors treats for

Christmas...that hasn't happened yet.  I was looking for 

something square to match the shape of the baking dish

and found these heavy Dollar Tree glass vases/votives.

Now this combo does not qualify as "sturdy" since it is all

plastic disposable food items.  Since I'm already painting, 

gluing, etc. they are going to be added into the mix for fun. 

The plastic dome came off of a mini-cake from the store.

A side project that also involves paint and glue are jars

with little animals attached to the lids like this.

They already have a base coat of white.

Most tutorials for the making of cake/treat/cupcake stands

use E-6000 glue to join the pieces together.  I had the

"Amazing Goop Household" adhesive on hand so I used it

to join the pieces.  It worked great for this project. 

I turned the plates face down on the table, put glue on

the bottom of the vases then placed the glued side

 of the vase down on the plate.  With this glue

you have time to move the vase around a few minutes

so you can eyeball from a few angles where the center is.

After a few hours of drying, you can paint the plates.

I think that painting the pieces joins them visually.

The instructions say that the glue is not completely ready

for 24-hours so if you paint before the 24 hours is up
 be careful how you pick the stands up.

I tried the bottled paints in the craft section that said

 "glossy" but they were not glossy enough to look glassy.

They didn't look bad but they did not have the look I wanted.

Spray paint to the rescue!  It really does give wonderful

results. Not that I want these stands to look like milk glass

but spray painting glass is a technique that I have had

good results with. 

The first time I tried spraying items to try to mimick

milk glass was for a magazine copy cat challenge blog

party.  That post was "Martha, Milk Glass and Myrtles".

Since then I have been on the lookout for glass pieces

that can be spray painted and added to my faux

milk glass collection I have going now.

I didn't want the new display stands to be milk glass white, however. I have found that an off white color is useful

in seasonal vignettes and in food presentation. 

A couple of the stands got sprayed with a combination of

white spray paint and then almond spray paint.

Those sprays were not glossy paints so then these stands

 got a couple of coats of a clear gloss finish sprayed on.

I tried to be good and spray paint inside boxes but it

is harder to get around all the sides that way.

These little Easter animals got spray painted blue before

the plastic cake stand got into the box so I could get

all the way around them.  

Do you see the dandelion seed that floated into the box during spraying?

I glued a wooden ball on top of the plastic cake dome to make it look fancy.  

I should have waited to glue it on until the ball was painted.  This way I had to tape it off. 

Here is the pretty dandelion seed blinged out with

a touch of Easter blue.

I was hoping that the paint was not getting on the "faces"

of the square baking dishes while they were getting spray

 painted green.  That way food could be placed in the dish later.

I wanted one of the little chick jar toppers to be pink

but I didn't have pink spray paint.  She got painted

with acrylic paint...she may get a gloss coat later.

Here's how she and her friends turned out...

They got to be in the Easter vignette along with

 the sturdy display stands.

In the center of the display are the mint green cake stands

that gave me the idea to use vases as bases.

The larger cake stand holds cute lambs from Pier 1.

The smaller mint green cake stand holds a vintage-

looking pink bunny with a cart of eggs. 

The home-made display stands mix in well with 

the "real" cake stands to elevate Easter items.

Behind the main Easter vignette is a display cabinet with

more assorted Easter items.

In the kitchen is a new two-tiered display stand that

is not a DIY project.  I saw it at World Market and thought

that it had good potential to have lots of future uses. 

I'm hoping that my hodge-podge/glued together/

spray painted sturdy display stands with have lots

of future uses also.  On the painted surfaces of the stands

I will not place food directly on them.  If the stands need

to be washed, they will be hand-washed only. 

Be looking for them in future blog posts! 
I'm sharing this blog post at
 Share Your Creativity @ It's Overflowing
I Made It Link Party @ Make it & Love It
Masterpiece Monday @ Boogieboard Cottage
Say G'Day Link Party @ Natasha in Oz
Sunday Showcase @ Under The Table and Dreaming
Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps On The Porch
Inspire Me Tuesday @ A Stroll Thru Life

Bottle Brush Critters Vignette

Since my four year old grand daughter, Lilly, was coming

to my house for Christmas this year, I wanted to have a

whimsical decoration on the kitchen table for her.

When I saw these cute ornaments on sale ($2.50 each)

at Michaels', they reminded me of the bottle brush trees

 I had decorated with in the rest of the house. 

Not only were they ready to go (no DIYing) except to cut off

the price tag and hanger, they were the same color as some

 of the spray painted trees that I was not too happy with.

Could I turn this into a "I Meant To Do That" project?

To add interest I wanted some of the little critters elevated.

 A Pinterest "pin" that I had was by Erin's Art & Gardens

that showed bottle brush trees elevated on milk glass items.

I don't have any real milk glass but I have tried to mimick

it in a blog post "Myrtles, Milkglass and Martha".

This seemed like a good time to make my own again.

After testing the cloudy drinking glass (that had some

milk glass-ish qualities) to make sure it was a good

 fit for the critters, I added some more hob nails on it.

To add dimension to glass that you are going to paint,

you can use puffy paint from the craft stores.

This is the "before" picture of the container that will 

be the tree stand for the largest tree in the vignette:

This is the picture "after" it has had dots of puffy paint added

to try to look like milk glass hobnails.  Let the puffy paint

dry completely before going on to the next step.

White appliance spray paint stays so well on glass.

I have used the combo primer and paint spray paints too for

 another project using puffy paint to write words on the object.

Here are the glass objects after being spray painted:

 The above photo doesn't show it but I also painted a taller 

drinking  glass from Dollar Tree (that I thought look similar

 to cut milk glass) and I recycled an olive jar for a stand too. 

Don't ever ever drink out of these glasses after spray painting them.

  Don't let your spouse drink out of them either or you may find

 yourself as the main character in an episode of "Snapped".

Here is the "milk glass" tree stand in action:

The big tree and some critters sit on a cake stand that

 I DO want to use for food in the future so I did not paint it.

 It is not milky white but it's close enough.

The critters came with glitter so I glittered up the trees

too to help them all look co-ordinated. 

The critters and the trees have all "shed" 

so now the table is glittered too. 

Have you ever had a project that you spend a lot of time

on and then it doesn't turn out like you had hoped?

That was my experience with the big tree in this vignette.

I wanted to make a larger version of the tutorial for darling

 little trees I saw on the blog "Just Something You Made".

It's hard to find large versions of the bottle brush trees.

One that I did find was $60 on ebay and not too cute.

Here are the steps I did to make the 24" tree:

1. Cut up rope or twine into pieces as wide as you want your tree

2. Soak the rope in water to help it uncurl (if necessary)

3. Separate the rope into thinner sections and lay our flat to dry

4. Arrange rope pieces centered along aluminum craft wire

5. Glue rope pieces to bottom wire 

6. Add another piece of aluminum wire on top and glue again

7. After glue is dry, fluff/separate the strands

8. This is a photo of the rope fluffed

9. Twist the wires together on the ends then twist the whole

tree while another person or a vice grip holds one end

Here's what the tree looked like after doing The Twist:

It got trimmed at little more...

...and then a little more:

I thought it would be fuller and fluffier than this.

In retrospect, I should have just left it this natural color, 

but I tried to glam it up and it never looked this good again.

I banned the disappointing tree to the kitchen but the jokes

 on me 'cause almost everyone that came to our house over

Christmas came in the back door by the kitchen.

 Guess what the first decoration they saw was?

Lilly decided that all the critters should come down off

their perches and get together for a family picture together.

This vignette was a success because it didn't have the

 "do not touch" feel to it and Lilly enjoyed moving

 the critters around on the table from time to time.

I'm sharing this post at
Tabletop Tuesday @ A Stroll Thru Life
Cowgirl Up @ Crafty Texas Girls

Myrtles, Milk Glass, and Martha

Martha Stewart's "Living" magazine is the only one I subscribe to that I never tear the pages out and I never throw it away.  To me, it has timeless and great ideas. 

 One idea that I saw that was "do-able" for me was this arrangement. 

Martha ( I know it's not really Martha herself coming up with these ideas and executing them but we'll just pretend) used lilacs in her arrangement.

 It is too hot down in the deep South to grow lilacs but we do have an abundance of crepe myrtles which have a similar shaped flower.

Here is my attempt to copy Martha's lilac arrangement.

Martha's holder looks like it is made with a milk glass vase and bowl.

I think she has a huge collection of milk glass but I have none.

Actually, I don't really know what "milk glass" is.

If it is glass and it is white, I assume it is milk glass but I thought I would look it up to educate myself a little on that subject.

Here's what I found out:

Milk Glass was first made in Venice in the 16th century.  The Venetians made the glass opaque or translucent in several different colors including white.  The white color is achieved through the addition of tin oxide or bone ash.  The name "milk glass" is a relatively recent name for the glass which is blown or pressed into a wide variety of shapes.

I can't blow or press glass and I don't have tin oxide or bone ash

so I went the cheap route and found a plastic vase and a glass bowl at the Dollar Tree that I thought would be compatable in size for this project.

I just love these little plastic vases in the floral section at Dollar Tree. 

They look so much like cut crystal.

Here's a look also at the glass bowl before it is painted.

To try to replicate the milk glass look, the bowl and vase got spray painted.

I used white appliance spray paint from Wal-Mart.  It was about $4/can...I thought it would probably hold up better to the water the vase and bowl would encounter.  Wal-Mart also has a white gloss spray paint for $1/can that would work also if you are on a tighter budget for this project.

After being spray painted

Martha's instructions said to use floral clay to secure the vase in the bowl. 

The floral clay came from Michael's in the floral section.  It is about $1.50 per pack.  To use floral clay you pinch off a small amount, make a roll and stick it under the edge of the vase before adding foam or water to the bowl.  I personally thought that the foam held the vase in place enough that you would not really need the floral clay.

You will need the floral foam made for fresh flowers. The floral foam comes in different shapes but the most common is this "brick" shape.

You can find floral foam at any major craft store. This usually comes in a pack of 3 or 4. Each brick comes out to about $1 each if you use a store coupon. "Oasis" is a specific brand name of this type foam but lots of people call all fresh floral foam by that name...kinda like "Kleenex" or "Band-Aid" or "Vaseline" are used.  Be sure you do not get the foam that says it is for silk or dried flowers

  One "brick" will be enough for 3 of these arrangements.   Cut the foam into 10 chunks.  Use 3 per arrangement and split the last one into 3 pieces to go into the vases.

The foam cuts very easily even with a regular dinner knife.

Soak the foam according to the package directions.

This is the foam just seconds after being dropped in the water.  Be sure your water container is deep enough to completely cover the foam after it sinks down into the water.  I like to leave it in the water at least 5 minutes to make sure it gets soaked to its center.

After the foam is soaked all the way through, put 3 of the larger chunks into each bowl.
Cut some of the flowers' stems to about 2".

Push the short stems into the foam in the bowl.
If needed, angle the flowers to get good coverage and to have them look nice around the edge of the bowl.

You may need to add small pieces of flowers around the larger flowers in the bowl to completely cover up the foam so that it does not show.  The foam in the vase helps to hold the longer stems upright. 

Leave longer stems on some of the flowers to put in the vase part of the arrangement.  It will help to have water in the vase and the bowl so the foam can continue to soak up water as needed.

Since this arrangement is not very big, I made three of them for more impact with the few crepe myrtle flowers still blooming in the yard.

Just for fun, I wanted to see if this vase/bowl set up would work with other types of flowers.  I had a few daisies I tried it with.

I thought it looked cute.  You would need to use greenery to cover up the foam in the bowl.

So, I'm doing the best I can with what I got but
here's Martha's original magazine photo:

And here is my copy cat version:

Martha has her wine and lilacs, I have my mint julep and crepe myrtles. 

I am linking this post up to
"Debbie Doos Blabbing and Blogging" Magazine Copy Cat Challenge
http://debbie-debbiedoos.blogspot.com/2011/09/magazine-copy-cat-challengelets-get-it.html