I had used a similar method in making my own walls-of-water for my tomatoes earlier in the spring, and so I knew right away how I would put together our water blob!
- Painter’s plastic/plastic sheeting (affiliate link)
, *4 mil* – any size (I used a 10×25-foot roll, and cut it down to about 10×20)
- Ironing board and iron
- Parchment paper
- Duct tape – optional, for sealing the hole for the hose
Fold it in half, length-wise and draw a line about 2-inches out from the fold. This will be your guide of how far into iron.
Now, use your hot iron to slowly melt the plastic together by running the iron across the line of your parchment. Do not let the iron touch the bare plastic – it will melt a hole in it, and will make a huge mess all over your iron!
Press firmly, but not too hard – because the plastic is hot, it will stretch. You don’t want to weaken the plastic by thinning it out with too much pressure.
Less is more. You can always re-melt the plastic it did not completely seal!
Let it cool for a few seconds before removing the parchment. If you remove the parchment too early – you could risk stretching the plastic. (You could alternate two pieces of parchment, let one cool while the other seals)
Continue to seal all of the edges, overlapping a few inches to make sure there are no holes. After sealing the end opposite of the fold, work from the sealed edge toward the fold. Everything will align perfectly!
Now, carefully cut a small slit in the folded end of the plastic, near the corner.
Seal off the hole with a piece of duct tape – or use your iron and parchment to melt the edge! I opted for duct tape because I plan on using it again a few times.
Then let the kids go wild! We sprayed a little water on top to splash on, and they loved it!
Update 4/16/14: Although not verified, it seems the original source of this awesome idea comes from Play at Home Mom! This post is intended to be a tutorial for my unique way of making it, and I do not take any credit for the idea itself!