Cute-and-made-with-love-from-MayDae

*Update:  The contest is now closed.  The last counting comment is made by Amber Robbins.  Check back tomorrow morning 5.10.10 for the winners to be announced!

We love cake stands.  They can be used for a long list of goodness, like displaying delicious food, holding flowers, ceramic birds, jewelry, or your teeny tiny dog.   Cake stands are delightful but can be pricey, so we are thrilled that making our own stands is a piece of cake!

Scroll down to read our tutorial on how you can use your old plates and candle holders to put together a DIY cake stand.  *Also, read through to the end of the post for an exciting announcement and our first-ever giveaway!

Materials:

1. Plates(whatever size you want – we used salad size)

2. Candle holders or other “stands”(the dollar store has glass ice cream glasses that would be perfect)

3. Sandpaper or liquid deglosser

4. Paintbrushes and primer

5. Acrylic or latex paint

6. Epoxy

1. Collect your ugly plates and candle holders(if you want to use cute plates and holders, skip steps 2-4) and clean them off

2. Rough up all pieces with sandpaper or use liquid deglosser to get some of the ceramic gloss off so the paint will stick(DON’T SAND TOO MUCH)

3. Use primer to coat each piece and let it dry completely

4. Paint each piece with your acrylic or latex paint until it has a smooth finish and let it dry completely

5. Place a small line of Epoxy (follow directions on bottle for mixing) around the edge of your candle holder and gently place in the center of the plate underside(we put the normal “bottom” of the candle holder against the plate because of its flatness)

6. Take your “smart” books (the heavier the better) and place on top of the candle holder for 24 hours to let it set

And ENJOY!

*Note – without using ceramic paint and heat drying it in the oven, these stands are not food safe, hence the paper doilies.  They also require gentle care so the paint doesn’t chip, so get those dish gloves out and give them a light hand washing when they need it.

See how easy that was?  And now for the exciting annoucement:  Maydae is launching our Etsy.com shop next week, and in honor of that we want to give away our DIY cake stands to two of our readers!  To enter, leave a comment on THIS post between now and Sunday night (5.9.10 at 5:00 pm MST).  USA residents only.  We will use a random selector to choose two readers who will each receive one of these cute-and-made-with-love-from-MayDae cake stands, and announce the winners on Monday.  One entry per person, and don’t forget to post this giveaway on FaceBook and Twitter as well!

Your comment can be about anything you want, but if you need a prompt, tell us what you would put on these cake stands if you were to win one.  Happy commenting!