Catching up.... BJ's graduation

So it's been a while since I've posted. I just returned from a lovely week at the beach (more on that later). I 'm here to share the pictures from BJ's, my cousin, graduation and party.

 

These were the DIY projects (I posted the details of the cupcake stand in my previous post). For the paint on the cupcake stand, I had to end up using the same paint I used for my porch. Spray paint and regular acrylic paint just wasn't cutting it.

For the frame, I used acrylic paint and then sandpaper to distress it.

 

 

These are the only pictures I have from the décor but you can see the cupcake stand worked perfectly.

 

 

These pictures were taken after his graduation.

 

 BJ and our grandparents

 

This picture was taken at the end of the night.

 

It was a great day and I was proud to see this fella graduate!

 

 



DIY Cupcake Stand

I have been wanting a nice cupcake stand for some time and because everyone should have a good cupcake stand on hand right!?! BUT I could never find one that was priced reasonably or one that I loved or one that held more than 12 cupcakes or, well you get the point right? I read a couple a blogs and saw different ways to "diy." So, I combined all the things/tips I read, browsed around Hobby Lobby and came up with this.

 

Supplies:

- 3 wooden circles (I used a 14" and 10" which were both from Hobby Lobby and the smallest one,  6.75" from Wal-Mart only because I could not find a smaller wooden circle at Hobby Lobby)

- 2 different sizes of wooden candle sticks (Again, I bought these in a bag from Hobby Lobby. Each bag had 6 candlesticks. I used all 6 of the rounder, fatter ones and just 2 of the skinnier, taller ones)

- Gorilla glue (or a wood glue that you prefer)

- Paint color of your choice

 

 

Instructions:

 

1. Glue the 4 rounder/fatter candlesticks on the bottom of your 14" circle. (I just kind of eyeballed it and used a ruler to make sure they lined up).

 



 

 

2. Let that dry. I'm impatient so I just waited like 3-5 minutes until it seemed stable. While waiting for it to dry, I glued a round, fat candlestick and a tall, skinny candlestick together (make 2 of these).

 

 

3. Find the center of the circle and put one of the two candlesticks from Step 2 in the middle (this was not as easy as it seemed - we measured and also eyeballed it).

 

 

4. Let that dry and then add your 10" wooden circle to the top of the candlestick.

 

 

 

 

5. Repeat Step 3 (add the second candlestick to the center)

 

6. Add your last wooden circle, the 6.75" circle,  to the top.

 

 



 Voila! You're done!

This entire project including spray paint was about $20!!!! Make sure you use the 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby for the 14" wooden circle or catch it when the wood products are on sale.

This took us about 20-30 minutes to make and probably would have been shorter but we were deciding on the right "look" for the tiers.

 

I haven't painted this yet because the Gorilla glue instructions said to let the glue dry for 24 hours.

 

Disclaimers:

- Along the way, I removed most of the excess glue; however, according to the instructions, you should be able to remove the excess glue once it has dried BUT I didn't want to chance it.

-I had help! (One person held the candlesticks in place, slightly raising it for the glue, once we decided where the "center" was, while the other placed the glue down. That was our technique).

 

 

I plan to use it Saturday for my cousin's graduation party. So come back for the "finished product" and to see how many cupcakes this stand will hold!

 

-jen