1st DIY Dessert Stand

1st DIY Dessert Stand

For my little girl's 1st birthday party, I wanted a little assortment of desserts.  I made this dessert stand to hold cupcakes and her party cake.

Stats:

• 10" and 12" rounds made of foam board
• 4" tall x 5" diameter PVC couplers
• wrapped with gift paper and clear contact paper

There are several people who make their own cake boards out of foam board.  After some shopping, I was in a good position to become one of those people.  I got a sheet of 3/16" thick 20"x30" foam board from Hobby Lobby at $1.99.  I also bought a circle cutter for $19.99 and a cutting mat for $9.99.  

Unfortunately the cutter was intended for paper and cardstock, so the blade isn't deep enough to cut the foam board.  After the "pilot" cut (the blade only penetrate the first layer of poster board), I cut the rest of the circle with a blade.

One evening many weeks ago, I dragged my husband to Home Depot to look for separators for this stand.  We found some PVC couplers in the piping sections.  These are 4" wide (er, or tall?) and 5" in diameter.  He believed we could find an alternative solution, but I insisted if the can of mixed nuts at home worked out, I could return these ... the couplers were only $2 each.

I really liked the couplers.  They were very sturdy, had a good weight, and were a good height for cupcakes.  So from the bottom down, we've got:

• 8" cake dummy,
• 8" circle,  
• coupler, 
• 10" circle, 
• coupler, 
• 12" circle

After cutting out a strip of wrapping paper, another larger strip of contact paper was stock to the "right" side.  I rolled that around a coupler and allowed the edge to stick to itself. 

Then I cut strips at each end so they could be folded over.

Ta-da!  Nice, pretty, and re-usable separator.

Each cake circle got covered in the solid color wrapping paper and contact paper.  The bottom circle got "feet" made of baby food jar lids.

I can really imagine this stand getting even fancier with some trim along the edge of the circles.

The whole thing is hot-glued together, but it'd would be super easy to disassemble and reuse.  The only work would be to peel off all the contact paper and start over!