DIY Tiered Serving Plates -- Tutorial

My girls decided it would be a good idea to have an Afternoon Tea.  (Actually, May-May and I decided it might be good to introduce a wee bit of refinement to our little Pickle-Mickle.  An Afternoon Tea sounded like a good way to do it, because I love tea.  And that settles it.)

I wanted to use Tiered Serving Plates to serve the dainty little refreshments for our Afternoon Tea Party.  There was only one problem.  I didn't happen to own any Tiered Serving Plates.  No worries.  I just hopped online to order a couple.  It couldn't be too expensive, right?  Wrong.  The only ones I liked were around $50 a piece.  I needed two. There was no way I was going to spend $100 just to serve a cookie.  I figured their had to be a better way.

There was.  I headed to a local thrift store and scored these plates and glasses.  I only spent about $7 for the whole lot.  That's better.  I headed to Hobby Lobby for industrial strength glue sticks and we were in business.  It was just icing on the cake that I managed to find matching plates and glasses.  I did not expect that.  You could also use candle sticks, vases or even tea cups to put in between your plates.  The plates don't have to match in size or pattern, but they should probably coordinate.

You definitely want super strength glue.  Nothing would ruin a tea party quicker than a lady daintily sneaking a second cookie and smashing the whole tier into a thousand pieces.  No.  You want good glue.  I used this:

To make placement easier, I drew a little circle on a piece of paper and slid that under my clear plate.  If your plates are opaque, obviously that wouldn't work.  The super strength glue dries more slowly than regular glue sticks, though, so you have a little more time to reposition.

Just keep gluing and stacking until you have all your plates and glasses in place.

Allow to dry firmly, then check to make sure you have a good hold.  If not, re-glue and allow to cool.

I happened to have 2 extra glasses, so I glued them on top.  Now I can fill them with flowers or other themed decorations.  Here is how it looks with flowers and food:

HINT:  I know you would never get so busy talking to your kids while you make these that you end up gluing the plates all crooked.  And then realize that they really mean it when they say "industrial strength" glue and you're probably going to break the glass if you keep trying to pull it apart.  And so you try to tell yourself no one will notice how crooked it is, except that you notice it every time you walk by.  But just in case you know someone who does that, let me give you a little tip.

If you need to get the industrial strength glue off, you can pop the plates in the microwave for 30 second intervals (mine took a total of one minute).  You just want to loosen it a little, but not turn it into a puddle of gluey liquid, because that is going to smear all over your plates.  And then you are going to have to spend a lot of time scrubbing off all that smeared glue.  And that wouldn't be very much fun.  While the glue is loosened, you can pry the plates apart.  If you work quickly and carefully, you can use a scraper to peel off the glue.   Then, when the plate cools a little, but not so much that the residue is completely hardened, you can squirt some liquid dish soap on there and use a scrubby to remove the residue.  Good as new.  Now go get a ruler and actually measure before you glue again.  And make your kids go play outside for a few minutes.

There you have it.  Tiered serving plates for about $3.50 each.  And a Tea Party.  Life is sweet.

Have a great day!

Angela