$2 Cake Stand

I will preface this project by saying I cannot take credit for the inspiration behind this project. Little Miss Erin Southards, my friend, small group leader and wife to our campus pastor at Indian Creek, gave me this idea in all of her decorating brilliance. She is TRULY a woman after my own heart, decorating on a dime and repurposing things she already owns. Since we meet at her house for small group, it's always fun for me to see how she's changed things around.

She had a couple of cake stands out with her Christmas decor (see what she did here!) and after asking about one of the taller ones, she told me she made it. WHAT? Hold the phone. She MADE a cake stand? "Easy as cake." (haha!) She had glued a plate and candle stick together and spray-painted them. This is one of the many reasons why I love her.

So what was I to do but try it out myself? I already had a random plate someone had given me with cookies on it years ago. It was just sitting in the "random dishes" section of my cabinet. I only needed a candle stick, so I set off to one of my favorite places in the world...Goodwill.

I found the below red candlestick for $1.99. Since I had everything else, this was literally the only cost for this project. Since my plate was simple (in design), I knew I could get away with a fancier candlestick.

I started by checking to see if the candlestick was level (who wants a crooked cake stand?). It was not.
So when I used Gorilla Glue to attach the candlestick to the bottom of the plate, I stuck in a small piece of paper, thick enough to make it level.
Generally, most people would use an epoxy for a project like this, but since Gorilla Glue was what I had, that's what I used! I let the glue dry until it was set completely (I let it set for at least 36 hours since I would be painting on top of it). When it was dry, I spray painted it with a few coats of white and finished it off with two coats of polycrylic to protect the finish.

Voilá! $40 cake stand for $1.99. Best part? This is easily customizable to however you want your cakestand to look. You could do a flat plate or one with high sides, a square plate or a round one, a short candlestick or a tall one, a wide one or a skinny one. What if you did a flat plate on top of an upside-down ramekin? Or used a wide, flaring out candle votive at the bottom?? Ah, the ideas are coming so fast I can hardly stand it! Then you can paint it any color you'd like. Please...go try it out!