How to make a Shabby Chic Cake Stand (Guest Post)

Welcome to this week’s lovely Guest Post. This week, Zoe from Playing By The Book shares her delightful “How to make a shabby chic cake stand that even Kirsty Alsopp might be proud of!”. Shabby Chic is all the rage these days and I think this plate stand is fabulous. I spotted it a few month’s ago, when she Zoe did a wonderful post on wolves and tea parties and I *knew* she would have to make another as a guest post for you! It is thrifty. It is upcycled. And it is gorgeous. And whilst I have your attention, do go and visit Zoe’s wonderful “Playing By the Book” blog. She was one of the first to inspire my Kids Craft section, by combining books and activities with her girls. She knows her kids literature and is wonderfully crafty. What more could you want? If she inspired me, will she inspire you? Over to Zoe!

How to make your own Shabby Chic Cake Stand!

What you’ll need:

3 plates, each a little smaller than the other

2 sherry glasses

1 tube of glue for china and glass

1. Source your plates and sherry glasses – charity shops or carboot sales are great for this. Choose three plates that complement each other
– perhaps all floral, or all blue and white. The top tier of the cake stand could even be a small bowl rather than a plate. Our plates and glasses cost us a total of £3.

2. Use the china glue to attach the two sherry glasses to the underside of the smallest plate and the medium plate, taking care to position the sherry glass in the middle (or near enough) of each plate. You might find it helpful to place the glasses on the plates first and draw round them so you have a guideline for where to place the glue. If you’re after a quick fix, hot glue will work, but it won’t make a strong cake stand that can be reused lots.

3. Once the glue is dry, assemble the stand by gluing the top plate and glass to the middle plate, and then the middle plate and glass to the bottom plate. Once again it can be useful to trace the position of your glass on the plate with a pencil before applying the glue.

4. Leave your cake stand overnight and then hold a tea party!

At Playing by the book we’re all about having fun with children’s books so here are some super books to whet your appetite for a tea party:

Miss Spider’s Tea Party By David Kirk

Let’s Have a Tea Party! by Emilie Barnes, illustrated by Michal Sparks

Flossie Crums: The Fairies Cupcake Ball by Helen Nathan

We’re also fond of dancing at Playing by the book so here’s a selection of lovely music to jiggle to whilst you have your tea party:

Tea Party by Frances England

Cookies and Milk also by Frances England (you can listen for free here on Zooglobble’s blog)

Tea Party by The Jimmies (you can hear the entire song for free here on The Jimmies’
Myspace page)

If you’ve any favourite children’s books or songs about having tea parties, I’d love to hear about them.

You see? You see?? Isn’t Zoe simply marvellous!? She is an incredible font of book and music knowledge and really should be your first stop on any Kid Lit tour… Thank you so much Zoe for sharing your fabulous Shabby Chic Cake Stand. I love them both. And now I am scouring the charity shops for our very own plates!