How to Make Cake Platters

Those who know me know that I love to garage sale.  You just never know what treasure you may find for dirt cheap.  This project was perfect for that treasure-finding bone in my body.  I found some ugly plates that had stains on them for 10 cents a piece.  Then I found some little glasses for a quarter.  The cute old lady who sold them to me went on and on about how great they would be for a little tea party or birthday party.  I agreed with her that they would be perfect for this birthday party, but I don't think I'm using them in quite the way that she had in mind!

I cleaned all the plates and glassware really well, then wiped them all down with isopropanol (rubbing alcohol).  Then I put a small thread of E-6000 glue (found at the hardware store and will now last me for the rest of my life because you use so little of it each time you use it) around the edge of the drinking glass (if you squint really hard you can see the little bubbles of glue on the glass).

Then I flipped the glasses over and glued them to the bottom of the plates.  I placed books on top of the glasses to make sure they stayed put while the glue cured for 72 hours (actually I left it for more than a week to cure, but that is because I got caught up in other parts of my life, like doing the dishes).

Then I spray painted them pink.  I laid down some paper to protect the floor and surrounded the area where I was painting with cardboard boxes so the paint wouldn't get all over the garage floor.  However, I failed in that respect and my husband came home to a slight pink hue in his parking spot.  It's all cleaned up now, but from now on I'm required to do all spray painting on the grass where we can mow away my mistakes!  Oops!

I also failed to account for the fact that the paint would get close to me.  Brown and pink flip flops are totally the rage right now, right?!

After the paint had a couple days to dry and cure, I used Mod Podge to glue some cute cupcakes onto the top of the platters.

(The yellow one isn't glued down yet.  I was just trying to figure out what configuration I wanted and where the center of the plates were.)

I used five layers of Mod Podge over the entirety of the plates.  One of the workers at Michael's assured me that Mod Podge is food safe, but I couldn't find another source of confirmation on that.  So I placed the cakes on circles of parchment paper, rather than directly on the plates.

And there you have it!  Easy peasy, cheap cake platter, perfect for the girls to take home as a party favor!