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

Mini Winter Wonderland

Christmas 2012 at my house was the year of the

bleached and glittered bottle brush tree.  I had loved 

seeing the vintage-y looking trees on Pinterest during

the year, then when I found lots of cheap trees to 

bleach, I went cray-cray decorating with them.

This post is about how I used the little trees and 

snow village houses on the dining room table.

I copied the idea of painting the inexpensive houses

from Karen of Shabby Sweet Cottage blog.

Karen got her houses at The Dollar Tree; I just 

happened to be in Wal Mart and saw similar ones

for only a dollar too that I purchased to paint.

My Wal Mart has $1 spray paint.  I chose the

glossy white to put on the houses. It took three coats of

the cheap paint to cover up all the paint work that some 

person somewhere in the world took to put the details 

on the houses...sorry, Person! Well, one can of  $1 spray

 paint for six little houses is still a good paint job price.

After the paint dried, the little white houses came inside

to get "snowy".  When snow falls on real houses it 

shows up mostly on roofs and overhangs so instead of putting

a spray adhesive on the houses, I painted on a clear glue

 on the roofs and awnings only.

  

Immediately after putting the glue on, the houses 

were sprinkled first  with Epsom salt and then glitter.

Epsom salt is inexpensive and can be found in the 

pharmacy department of drug and discount stores. 

I had purchased some Martha Stewart glitter at

an after Christmas sale one year $2 for six tubes.

It was perfect "for such a time as this". 

Because the Epsom salt is more coarse than the glitter

I put it on first so it would not cover up the glitteriness.

Since the little houses and trees were going to be situated in

"snow" that I didn't want directly on my dining room table,

they got put on cake stands and trays.

I had seen a product online called  SnoWonder that claimed

 to look and feel like real snow so I ordered some.

Just a tiny amount swells up to a whole bowl full

when water is added to it.  The artificial snow got added

to the silver serving pieces acting as vignette holders.

More trees, silver ornaments, and votive candle holders

 were added to the dining room centerpiece.

The only "peeps" added to this vignette were a miniature

bride and groom to commemorate my son's upcoming wedding.

The bleached trees with silver balls were some I got 

last year from World Market.  The trees that I bleached

out this year in this vignette did not have glitter on them

but if you would like to see how to glitter the trees click here.

This pretty faux mercury votive with snowflake 

embellishement came from Wal Mart...a pack

of five with candles was only a little more than $5.

The only houses in this vignette that did not come 

from Wal Mart came from a local store that had marked

these little cardboard houses (with green bottle brush

trees even!) down to $3 because some of the glue had

turned yellow.  A quick paint job fixed that.  

The cardboard houses even had a battery operated light.

The silver cake stand was the highest element on the table.

I wanted to make sure that guests seated at the table could

see over the centerpiece.

If I had added the extension leaf to the table, I could have 

made the centerpiece larger but then the longer table cuts into

one of the main traffic paths through the house.

I like how the rusty wire running through the bottle brush

trees I bleached shows...it makes them look more vintage-y.

For info on bleaching bottle brush trees see "Bottle Brush Tree Mantle". 

The SnoWonder snow was very pretty and a fun 

conversation topic at meals as everyone wanted to touch it.

It did take a little bit of upkeep however to give it that

"freshly fallen" look.  The manufacturer did advise about

that in the information so it was not a surprize.

Since the product is 99% water, as the water evaporates,

the snow condenses.  A quick spritz of water from a 

spray bottle reconstitutes the snow immediately.

Before spritzing (a few days old snow)

After spritzing

Before spritzing

After spritzing

Only moments before, this daddy deer had only patchy snow to try to find food in.

Now after a spritz, the snow is up to his knees.

The water spritzes did not seem to affect the paint or snowy effect on the houses.

If you want "snow" that is less expensive and does not 
require any maintenance you can use epsom salt instead...
but the salt is not as really real looking.

I am sharing this post over at Debbie and Shannon's
3rd Annual All Things Dollar Tree Blog Party