DIY Cake Stands

I served as my agency’s campaign manager for our annual charity drive.  It was a big task, and one with high visibility at my job.  As you can imagine, there were some obstacles to the position, but I was honored to step up to the challenge.

One of our awareness events was a sweets tasting.  My fellow colleagues kindly stepped up to volunteer to bake and donate various sweets for the event, and I did the coordination and decor for the employee lounge.  While expectations are low for meetings and such at my particular agency, the fun and creative side of me wanted to “juj” it up a little bit.  I wanted banners and balloon clusters and tissue paper pom-poms.  And  I wanted cake stands and doilies for every item.  This is where I had to think outside the box a little bit.

My role as campaign manager did not come with a budget.  Everything was either donated or out of pocket.  With 20 people donating baked goods, it was not reasonable for me to spend $10-$15 each on 20 cake stands.  Think woman, think!  To the Google!

After some research on google and pinterest, I laid out my plan.  I saw DIY cake stands using affordable items, and decided to try using plates and candle holders from the dollar store.  So this is what I did.

Materials:

• candle holders
• plates
• gorilla glue

Here are the items I used, all purchased from my local Dollar Tree store (except the Gorilla Glue):

Instructions: 

• Dot the gorilla glue onto the top of the candle holders.  This doesn’t need to be excessive.

 

• Press the glued side of the candle holder onto the bottom of the plates and hold in place according to the instructions on the glue bottle

 

• Let the stands cure overnight upside down

 

Here are my finished stands.  They totally looked awesome when I put doilies on top and delicious sweet treats on them for the event!

I was ecstatic that I was able to execute my vision without breaking my bank!  And I got so many compliments on the presentation!  I wish I took better pics (bad blogger!!!)  In full disclosure, the glass stands made it exactly the length of the event before they toppled.  I’m not sure if they became unstable during the travel to the event or what.  The grey ones lasted and are still in tact months later.  So you may want to consider the fragility of the items that you select for your stand.  I could not have been happier with the outcome.