thrifty thursday #3

Sorry for this post being a little late, my husband left for Basic Training for the Air Force this week and it's been quite hectic!  All posts this week until this one were scheduled....I'm slacking!

This week for my Thrifty Thursday, we are going to take a nice little trip to the Dollar Tree!  I LOVE this store, the cheapskate in me goes crazy in this store. I hate it when I walk out wondering 'How did I spend $20?  Everything was only a dollar!!"  Though, while reading the blog Tatertots and Jello I found this post which showed how to make a tiered dessert stand.  I fell in complete and utter love with the idea.  I love the retro feel of a dessert stand, it just speaks to me of days when women would go ALL out for a dinner party or a tea party...I mean, who has tea parties anymore??

Anywhooo...back to the project.  The total cost of this sweet little dessert stand is under $5!  Honestly, tell me where you can get a personalized piece of anything that is actually usable for less than $5. (crickets chirping) Exactly!
What you need:

2 ceramic plates (I got mine from The Dollar Tree), one should be smaller than the other, my smaller plate was more or a wide rim bowl
1 candlestick holder (also compliment of Dollar Tree, same ones I used in this post)
Glue (Tatertots and Jello recommends  using Gorilla Glue, E6000 or 9001)
Enamel Paint (found mine at A.C. Moore, I used Folk Art Brand)
Paint Brush(es)
Oven
Oven Mitts
Rubbing Alcohol and Cotton Balls

What to do:

Clean the plates with alcohol (the tutorial doesn't say to do this, but the bottle of paint did), which evaporates quite quickly so you don't have to worry about drying it off.  Peel the stickers off the bottom of the plates.  Don't be like me and leave the stickers on only to find them in the bottom of the oven, burning!

Using your enamel paint, paint the design of your choice onto the plates.  I chose a multi colored polka dot pattern on my larger plate and a P (my initial) for the smaller.

Allow the pain to dry for about an hour (I forgot about mine and wound up leaving them overnight!)  While you're waiting eat something yummy...maybe a bagel with cream cheese and cinnamon sugar with a glass of ice cold Chocolate milk for the side?

Set the plates in a cool oven and turn it on to 350.  Once the oven reaches 350, turn it off and allow the plates to cool inside the oven.  I left them overnight.

Remove the plates from the oven and there you have it!  Personalized plates!  Glue the candlestick holder upside down to the middle of the larger plate.  Allow it time to dry.  Once dry, glue the smaller plate onto the candlestick holder.

Now, isn't she a beaut?  The bottle of paint claims it is dishwasher safe, once bakes.  I don't know how dishwasher safe the glue holding the pieces together is, so I would probably opt for hand washing this little baby.