{My Vacation & a Dollar Store Cupcake Stand}

Hey, y'all!  I've missed you!  The week before last, my husband and I celebrated our seven year anniversary.  And last week was our spring break, so we decided to spend a few days in Charleston, South Carolina.  

We stayed in the same inn where we went on our honeymoon.  

We ate a lot of great food, but we tried to balance that with walking a lot.  There are lots of touristy activities to do in Charleston, and we've done a lot of those before, but our favorite thing to do is just walk around the beautiful city and take pictures.  

It was so nice to get away!  Then the end of the week, I frantically worked on my project for the final round of Creative Bloggers Got Talent.  There were several setbacks and even some tears, but I hope what I was able to get done is enough to win!  I have really felt out of the blogging loop, though.  So if you commented on a post last week, thanks so much!  And if you posted something awesome on your blog, I hope I am able to check it out.

Anyway today, I'm going to share with you how to make a dollar store cupcake stand.  (I originally did this as a guest post for Craftbotic.)

Supplies:

• Dollar store pillar candle plate
• Dollar store taper candle holder
• Martha Stewart paint (and a paint brush, of course)
• E-6000 Adhesive

Step One:

Gather your dollar store supplies.

Step Two:

Clean the pieces with rubbing alcohol.

Step Three:

Paint your pieces with Martha Stewart's new paint from Michaels.  (The paint comes in so many yummy colors, and it's great for many different surfaces.)  I used several coats of the pearl paint, followed by a coat of the glitter paint in a matching color.

Step Four:

Bake your glass pieces.  You read that right!  You must bake the pieces in order for the paint to fully adhere to the glass.  (That or wait 21 days, and, seriously, who wants to wait that long for paint to dry?!)  I found directions on the Martha Stewart website in the comment section for baking the paint:

"After drying for one hour, place in cool oven.  Set temperature at 350 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for 30 minutes.  (Glass must heat gradually.)  After 30 minutes, turn the oven off.  Let glass cool completely in oven.  Don't use for 72 hours."


Step Five:

Glue the candle stick to the bottom of the candle plate using E-6000.  Follow the directions on the package.

Step Six:

Enjoy your brand new cupcake stand!

I didn't have a cupcake when I got ready to take my pictures, so I used a flower instead.  The great thing about this project is that you can use the cupcake stand as a candle holder.  Or you can stack finger food on it.  It's a very versatile party (or everyday) piece!

I love the color.

I love the pearly look of the paint too.

Can you believe that this only cost $2 plus supplies?  For that price, you can make as many as you want in every shade of Martha Stewart pearly paint in existence!