I brought home several old trophies from a neighbor’s garage sale and thought I’d tackle a fun repurpose project. There’s been some pretty cool things done with vintage trophies, like this trophy coat rack on by Kate Pruitt found on Design Sponge–
or these fantastic bottle stoppers featured this month in Country Living magazine made by Shannon Vance and Robin Sweeney of Stash Style.
Here’s my trophy scrap pile. I wish I’d taken a few shots before disassembling most of them. It would have helped a lot in the rebuilding process. 
There are several toppers in my stash, which will be fun to interchange on my cupcake stands depending on the event! There are a few round wreath ones that would work great with a custom graphic printed off the computer and adhered to the center.
I parted out the metals (and faux metals) and painted them with metallic silver spray paint. (If spraying plastic, it helps to coat pieces first with a primer such as Kilz primer/sealer spray.) None of these will be coming in contact with food, by the way.
I poked the screws of the topper pieces down into a piece of cardboard atop my large recycling bin to keep them upright and staying in place.
I spray painted the wood pieces hot pink, but of course can repaint to any color any time. I think all silver would look great. The pillars could also be wrapped with a patterned paper such as gift wrap or scrapbook paper.
For the trays of one stand, I used two pie tart pans.
I drilled a center hole in each large enough for the inner rod of the trophy to slide through.
For the trays of the other stand, I used sturdy cardboard 14-in scalloped-edge silver cake platters, again drilling center holes.
I reassembled the trophy parts like Tinker Toys, piecing and parting out different sections of one trophy for another, sliding stacking pieces onto the rods and screwing them all back together with their nuts. This is where your photos of the disassembling would come in handy as you may forget what fits best with what. This project is actually quite simple in concept, but does take a bit of extra dexterity or third hand if available.
If you want to use doilies on your trays, you can add them when stacking pieces, or simply cut a side slit and center hole in them and slip them under the loosened trophy pieces.
Once all my pieces were put back together with the pans and trays now acting as tiered stands, I headed off to my favorite sweet shop for cupcakes! (You didn’t think I was going to bake too, did you?) Why should I when I live only minutes away from Sift Cupcake & Dessert Bar, winners of Food Networks Cupcake Wars!
A very special thank you to Allie, the manager at the Cotati location for loading up my repurposed trophy cupcake stands with delicious delectables!
Simple. Thrifty. Fun. Delicious!
You’ve done it again! I sit here and shake my head at your cleverness, while thinking to myself that the Salvation Army thrift store probably has a whole row of trophies just waiting to be rescued.
When I read the headline I thought perhaps you would re-use the bases and toss the tops. I LOVE the way you did them, though!
Cheers,
Cassie
So Cool!!! Way to reuse and recycle!! That is awesome!!Love the girls at Sift!
LOVE them~ what a great idea. My husbands old trophies are now in trouble! Thanks for sharing all of your creative ideas….
Cathe, these are just incredible! What a fabulous idea, but the fact that you executed it so well? Next level crafting right there! Way to go!
How FUN! I love this idea! So stinkin’ clever too!
These are absolutely amazing! Wow!
i should know by now, whatever is lurking anywhere unloved or unused, is just fodder for your creative mind. now i am thinking ugly thoughts about all the trophies my kids have in every nook of their rooms, coagulating dust for the ages. i bet we could get some more useful life out of these if i could translate them into cupcake holders. i guess i need to bribe them with some good cupcakes now. every plan has a start. thank you again. xoxo.w.
Another awesome project to try! Always inspired by what you come up with…
Fantastic ideas. Thanks for sharing.
I absolutely LOVE the cupcake displays! So creative!
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Such a clever idea! As we move a bit closer to yard sale season up north, I’m adding trophies to my search list (along with old suitcases and other fun finds!)
I love it! Very clever idea.
Many greetings, Frieda
brilliant!!!! wish i’d seen this a few years back. wine corks and coat rack my personal fav. :>)
Terrific idea!
OMG this is fab! I wonder if my husband will notice if I steal his old trophies! I make cakes and this would be a great way to display them
Jaki
this is SO clever. What a cool idea 🙂
Love this idea, my son has about 40 trophies from go karting, most are plastic toppers, but will try using the metal ones. Great ideas and I love cupcakes too!
hmmmm…. pretty interesting. I bought some clearance serving trays after Christmas to put together and make desert stands for my sons wedding. I might could use a variation of this.
genius and gorgeous!
you never cease to amaze me!! these are fabulous Cathe!!
awesome idea!!!! i love your blog!!
I love it! I know it’s uncool to put links to your own blog in the comments, but I just had to show you what I did last summer with trophies. Great minds think alike! Lisa~
http://thepenningtonpoint.com/2011/05/a-new-summer-theme-on-a-shoestring/
We have so many old trophies sitting around. I had started taking them apart & was mainly interested in the wood rectangles, but thank goodness I didn’t throw away the rest. I will put the figures in a container/plastic bag with their respective hardware, now. Thanks!
Golly doesn’t your brain ever get a rest!!
Absolutely brilliant and love the hot pink paint. Bet those cakes were delicious.
Cathe – i have been following your site for awhile and this cupcake stand is simply brilliant. thanks for a great idea…..Canada
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OMG! I have so many trophies from my kids and husband. I almost was going to throw them away….. until now!
SO clever and cute! Eating a cupcake (or two) off of one of your stands would make me feel triumphant!
Brilliant! Thanks for sharing!!! <3
Featured this on Craft Gossip today Cathe! http://homeandgarden.craftgossip.com/turn-a-trophy-into-a-cupcake-stand/
How did you know that I just have two trophy’s -but they are my sons!!!-and my husband said to git rid of them. Being a crafty person!! I need to keep them -again my son’s racing trophy’s- but need to have a good reason !! Never know what you will see on FB. Thank you Cathe-this just made my day!!! I am not sure I will change colors-they are silver-as I want to be able to always know they were his-but re-purposing is perfect.
This is the best re used idea I’ve seen in a long time.
These in ingenous! I love it. My niece (whos 5) tells me all the time she needs trophies, so I’ve been buying them at the goodwill. Also my grandson (who’s also 5) likes them for his Matchbox car races. Your idea brings me to believe I need to start keeping the trophies for myself. Great idea. Thanks for sharing.
We just cleaned out our storage building and I came across a box full of my daughter’s twirling and gymnastics trophies. I can’t wait to try your ideas! SOOOOOOO CUTE!!!!
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Cathe’s creativity is endless, and always impressive!
How awesome are these!?!?!!! Love them!
I about fell over when I saw this. With 4 grown kids and hundreds of trophies I was thinking how to get rid of them. I love your ideas – all of them! Most of ours are golf and soccer. I can’t wait to surprise them with some of these ideas. Thank you!
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LOVE this idea! Just cleaned out my son’s room and found 3 giantic trophies I am going to salvage for some fun cupcake/pastry shelves! Thanks for the fab tutorial…now off to spray paint!
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What an amazing idea! Someone gave me a boxwood of old trophies to donate, but they were so cute I hated not to try to do something with them! Thank you!!!!
OMG – what a cool idea! I’m doing a craft fair in a couple of months and this would be an awesome way to display some of my crafts! So glad I stumbled across this! 🙂
These are some really unique ideas of what to do with trophies that are just sitting in a box somewhere in your home or even buy at a thrift store. I’m in love with the cupcake display. Very interesting!!