Baby's 1st Birthday Party Prep: DIY Teired Trays

Our son Foster's first birthday is approaching in a couple months... I can hardly believe it!  Since life is hectic and there are always a bunch of things to do, I've decided to plan early and get things put together slowly over this next while.  It also means, I get to share with you bits and pieces along the way!  Of course, when the day comes, I'll share the whole shebang, all put together!  Pinterest has absolutely been a great space to pin up all the idea's and such that are floating around the wild, wild, web, helping me get organized.

I wanted to make a lovely cupcake / cake stand for the big day.  Foster's party is going to be somewhat of a non theme.  Just bright and colourful, with pattern.  We'll save the themed birthday parties for when he is older and has specific interests.  A tiered tray was first on the list and it all began with a trip to the thrift store.

Some serving trays and brass candle sticks.  I liked them because they had a nice weight, so once assembled into my tiered tray, it would be fairly stable.  All five pieces were under $5.00 total.  A lot of thrift stores have a half price day.  That is your ideal time to get your supplies!  Washed and dried :)  They were nothing spectacular on their own, but together, they will be perfect.

I used E-6000 as the adhesive to assembled the trays.  I glued the bottom tray with the candle stick on it and the middle teir with the candle stick on it first, then let them totally set and dry before adhering everything else together.  So far, so good!  Really, if you like the look you could just stop right here.  But I kept going. 

Picked up some Krylon, Blue Ocean Breeze in Gloss finish.  Since this product works on metal, there was no need for spraying on a primer first.

Ta-Da!  Lovely, blue tiered cupcake and cake stand!  Of course I'll absolutely be able to use this again in the future for other social gatherings.  The cool thing?  The brass candle sticks I used actually unscrew into to pieces!  So I am able to partially dismantle this thing to make storage a little easier. 

It would look super pretty on a summer party table, filled with lemons, waiting to be turned into refreshing lemonaid.... or at a bridal or baby shower filled with delicious treats!

The whole thing cost around $7.50 to make.  $5.00 for the trays and the candle sticks, I had the E-6000 adhesive on hand and I'm using the rest of the Krylon Blue Ocean spray paint for other projects... so I figure around $2.50 worth of that.  Not bad!  And it looks just like I wanted it too.

There are soooo many ways you can build your own tiered tray.  If I had the room, I would have a ton of them in all different styles and themes.  Gah!  It's probably good I don't have the room.... lol.

P.S.  If you are concerned about placing food directly on the spray painted surface, consider putting treats on them that have either their own wrapper (like a cupcake) or put a paper liner on the tray first.  Wax paper or even a pretty decorative paper would work great and would help with cleanup.