Ok, so this is the last post on designing a Sports Party--promise!! Today's DIY tiered cupcake/cookie server is the most expensive to make, but, it was my favorite piece at the reception! 

 

  

 

Ideally, I wanted to make this out of an old found trophy, but I ran out of time and with the popularity of old trophies right now, buying the parts turned out to be more cost-effective. 

I went to our local trophy and awards store. I had never been in here before and I loved what I found. There is everything imaginable to craft a trophy out of. Since my focus was on volleyball and basketball, I tried to focus on those components. You can seriously create any size or color your little celebratory heart desires.

I chose a triangle-ish bottom base and secondary base. These suckers are heavy. This is where all of the weight of a trophy is hidden. They were finished in a bad black, gold, and silver faux marble look. Well, not bad, just not what I was loving.

 

 

After the bases were sprayed with a plastic primer, I covered them with gold metallic spray paint.  

 

 

They cut the metallic PVC on-site any length you want, but you can also cut it yourself with a hand saw. They also screw pieces of the metal rods together creating the same length of your cut PVC. These rods drop down into the PVC to attach everything. 

 

 

To make the discs that the food sits on, I used Wilton cardboard circles. The circles were sold in a set of 6. These come in just about every size and they were about $6.50 at Michael's, before the coupon.

 

 

I wanted the circles to feel a little heftier, and since there were so many in a pack, I doubled them. I cut a circle out of some insulation board a bit smaller than the cake circle. I hot glued it in between the 2 cake circles making an insulation sandwich.      

 

 

Using a 7/8" metallic ribbon, I hot glued it onto the edges of the cardboard a few inches at a time.  

 

  

 

 

The bottom of the trophy was put together like a normal trophy.

 

 

Then the 4" pieces were placed over the top 3 gold screw caps. The 16" disc was then placed on top (centered) and with a pencil, I drew around the PVC onto the bottom of the disc. Then I took the disc off and with an exacto knife I cut out the holes. I cut through only the bottom piece, but not the top.  

Then I sat the last (2) 7" PVC pipes around 4" apart on top of the 16" disc and traced around them. Then I cut the circles out of the cardboard -- not going through the bottom piece. This allows the PVC parts to slide into the cardboard

 

 

Using hot glue, I rimmed the PVC before placing them. The bottom of the 14" top piece was traced, cut out, and glued in place

 

 

 

The same finial spacer that I used here was sprayed gold and hot glued underneath the volleyball topper. It was then hot glued in the center of the top disc.

 

 

On the bottom base, I spray painted a curtain ring gold and hot glued it in the center. Then a 4" volleyball was placed in it.

 

 

 The smaller version was used with a wooden plaque that was spray painted black. There were no rods used, just hot glue. The (2) 14" disc edges were covered in a satin ribbon. This type of ribbon I would not recommend. it shows every little hot glue bump and it wrinkles. I would only use metallic {which is papery} or grosgrain ribbon.

To create both of the trophy servers cost about $50. 

 

 

 

The basketball hoop was bought at Wal-Mart for about $2.75. using the same sandwich technique with the 16" cake circles, I covered the edge in an orange and white stripe 7/8" ribbon.

I measured about every 4" around the circle and hot glued a tiny piece of each loop onto the bottom of the disc.

 

 

I flipped it upside down. I found the tallest vase I had and filled it with water to give it some weight. Then I hot glued {surprise!} the top of the vase onto the bottom of the disc, and voila -- a tall cookie platter!!

 

 

 If you want to visit the other posts from the Sports Party, click here:

Designing a Thank-You

Giant Party Props

 

Sporting the serving pieces: Part 1