Failed Knock Off Tiered Stand to Better!

Ok, so this tiered stand has been around forever and everyone's done it, right?  Well, I thought, I could do it too!  Well, I was wrong!!  I followed many of the steps fellow bloggers wrote about, but my stand stunk!!  No matter what I tried, a bigger all-thread, pre-cut pipes, different washers, it just didn't work!  It was wobbly and terrible looking!   I was angry, why couldn't I make this stand, like so many people have before me?  Why?!

Well, after a few months of looking at these pans, I could no longer use...  I mean can you really make a cake in a pan with a hole in the center?  I had a Eureka moment!  You know these moments, when you basically make lemonade out of your terrible lemon, fail of a project...

Here is where the flashback occurs, which again was a different fail....  Last summer, I made some mason jars on top of wooden candlesticks as a centerpiece for our picnic table...  I had planned on putting tea light candles inside them.  Sounds cute, right?  Well, it was very cute, but DANGEROUS!!  The mason jars were just too big and would tip over really easy, not a good thing for open flames.  So, since I had only hot glued the painted candlesticks to the mason jars, I just pulled them apart and stored them in the garage...

Flash to current time and enter the painted, wooden candlesticks!  Hey, I could use those candlesticks perfectly on tiered stand!!  And I love the red color!  I actually like mine better than the inspiration!

Materials:
Wooden Candlesticks (I used four little ones to add height to the bottom of my stand and 2 in the layers)
Paint
Hot Glue
3 different sized cake pans
Pencil

Instructions:

1. Put a couple of coats of paint on your wooden candlesticks.
2. Heat up the old glue gun (you trusty friend!) 
3. Turn the biggest pan upside down on a level surface and grab your 4 short candlesticks.  Start a solid bead of glue on the top of the candlestick and adhere, face down on the edge (about an inch from the edge.)  Repeat this process three more times, basically making a square with the candlesticks in the corners on the round bottom of the biggest pan.  Turn the pan over and let dry.
4. Find the centers of each of the pans and mark with a pencil, on the top and bottom of each pan.
5. Grab one of the tall candlesticks and apply a solid bead of glue along the bottom of the candlestick and center it in the center of the biggest pan.  
6. Do the same process with the medium pan.
7. When the biggest pan is dry, apply a bead of glue to the top of the candlestick and center the medium sized pan on top of the candlestick.  This is easier to do since you have the candlestick already adhered to the top of the middle pan.  Just make a line from the bottom candlestick and the top candlestick for the two pans.
8. Finally, apply a bead of glue to the top of the medium pan's candlestick and set the top, small pan on top.  I totally eyeballed this to get it close.  If you don't set it perfectly, just peel them apart and start again.  Hot glue is pretty forgiving for this project.
9. Let dry for 24 hours and begin using!

I am really pleased with my 'lemonade' and love using this stand!  Sure, if I were a REAL blogger, it would have beautifully decorated cupcakes and delicate frosting, but get real, I am a MOM of 3 boys!!  I have go to snacks and lunch box fixin's organized in it on the counter!!  I still love it anyway!

What is the best thing you have made from a project fail?

Take care!

Morgan