Dollar Store Tiered Chandelier Dessert Plate

I love me some dollar store!  Although, I don't always shop there with crafting in mind - it's where I get bubble envelopes, tissue and ribbon for Etsy orders, and buy junk for goodie bags and stocking stuffers... While planning a surprise party for my mom, I envisioned a tiered dessert tray dripping in crystal beads (it was sort of a French themed party, but more of a French "style" and without all the Eiffel Tower junk and other stereotypes). Here's how I brought it to life...

I saw something somewhere that gave me the idea to stack plates and glasses to make a tiered dessert platter, and you know where you can find those things cheap -- the dollar store!  The plates have a serious "grandma vibe" but the cuts in the glass reminded me of crystal.

I found some glass and silver candle holders collecting dust in the back of my cabinet and glued them to the plates with E6000.

And glued the tiers together.  I used e6000 and Liquid Nails (clear).  Not really sure which I prefer.  

I also used some plain looking glasses and filled them with some of the extra beads and glued the plate on top.   

Now to add the beads...

The misleading part of this post is that the beads are not from the dollar store, and they can actually be pretty expensive. A little over $7 a yard at JoAnn and you might be surprised to learn that you need nearly 2.5 yards for three 9" plates - yikes!  Even with a coupon that's around $10 per plate, and since I was making several that was out of the question. I found some iridescent bead trim on Etsy that was much more affordable.

Purchased from Flagstone on Etsy

By the way, want to know how to figure out how many yards of trim you need?  Take the diameter of your plate and multiply it by pi (that's 3.14 smartypants).  So a 9" plate x 3.14 needs 28.26" of trim.  Don't forget to multiply by the number of plates you're using too!  So three 9" plates requires 84.78" of trim.  I truly never thought I would use calculations with pi in my adult life!

I glued the beads to the rim by applying some glue to 1/3 of the perimeter, give or take, letting it get tacky for a couple minutes, then pressing the beads into the glue and holding in place for a minute before moving on.

The drooping (draped, swag-like) beads were a little trickier, they kept wanting to slide so I had to keep checking them and holding them in place for several minutes.

At first I was afraid the fake crystal beads would cheapen the whole thing, but I knew once they were on the table loaded with desserts it would come together.  The sparkle of the beads transforms it from a cake plate to a Parisian chandelier cake plate, or so I like to think!