MAKE A MINI CAKE STAND

Make a mini cake stand? Your first question may not be "How?", but "Why?"



Oddly, when I wrote the sentences above, what popped into my mind was the question of why anyone would climb Mt Everest, and its classic answer: "Because it's there."

We have even better reasons for mini cake stands:

• They're pretty, and you can put things other than cake on them:


• Cupcakes and muffins


• Candy


• Soap


• Jewelry


• Candles


• Your keys


• Small bottles of perfume, lotion, etc.


• Any number of other small things that would be pretty displayed like that

I'm back from my near-week of crafting with Mama, Aunt Charlotte, two daughters, and a five-year-old granddaughter, and eager to share what we did. The muffin stands were the first things we worked on.

You need:

• Candle sticks, or similarly shaped glass items


• Pretty saucers or salad plates


• A really reliable glue (My choice: E6000)
  

The process is simple: Glue a saucer to a candle stick. Done.



But tips are good, too:
.
Pay attention to style consistency--put modern with modern, delicate with delicate, etc.

Let yourself see things with "different eyes". A candlestick may be what's on the Materials List, but that doesn't mean you can't use an upside-down wine glass, or a tumbler. What else makes a good pedestal? Let yourself see the possibilities. I frequently shop the thrift store aisles with a saucer in hand, checking to see if one thing or another will work!

Most surprising to me was the discovery that plates and saucers may be somewhat warped, rather than perfectly flat, and candlesticks may not have perfectly level tops. Before you glue pieces together, make sure the saucer is level. If it isn't, try rotating it on the candlestick, as sometimes the slant of one can be positioned to offset the slant of the other. If that doesn't work, try another piece.

You may feel a colored candlestick might work better than crystal. You can paint them, if you like. I paint the inside of the cup on top, and the underside of the base with the color I want, and then coat the paint with a clear, protective "lacquer".


I have a mental image of the breakfast table set, with one of these stands at each place, a lovely fat muffin atop each one, inviting smiles and butter. I have the stands now. All I need are muffins!

(A final word on the glue. E6000 is the best I've found for bonding glass, bar none. You do have to go back and check every few minutes for the first half hour or so, to make sure things haven't slid off-center, and do be sure to give the full twenty-four hours before doing anything too brutal to test the bond, but after that you'll be hard pressed to pry the pieces apart. You can get it at craft stores. And no, I don't work for the company that makes the stuff!)
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