Landscaping: Glowing Slime Waterfall

Glowing Slime Waterfall 

Materials

• Hot glue gun & glue sticks
• Popsicle sticks
• Cardboard 
• Green acrylic paint
• Neon green acrylic paint
• Neon yellow acrylic paint
• Glow in the dark paint
• White chalk pen
• Can of paint-on Polyurethane 
• Triple Shine acrylic spray 

Instructions

    Constructing a Base for the Waterfall

Using cardboard and popsicle sticks create the support piece for your waterfall.

I created an L-shaped ledge using a piece of cardboard then glued popsicle sticks to the "ledge" and braced the bottom of them by gluing more popsicle sticks to create a flat bottom. Finish the base by gluing a piece of colored paper in front of your popsicle sticks to hide them.

TIP: The hot glue gets really heavy, so keep this in mind while constructing the base. Include a counterweight to weightdown the waterfall, otherwise, it will topple forward.   

   Waterfall Construction 

Once your base is constructed you can start creating your waterfall. This is done by layering hot glue in streams, painting, then adding more layers of hot glue. 

Note: Depending upon your hot glue gun, be careful during this step. If your hot glue gun has heat settings, you will want to turn it to the cooler setting. You will find that you remelt the previously laid layer and it may flow down the waterfall in unintentional ways.

When you have gotten a nice layering of hot glue, pause and add some paint. I used glow-in-the-dark paint to make this layer really pop. Once the paint has dried, layer more hot glue on your waterfall until you are happy with the effect, then paint the waterfall.

    Painting

Choose your waterfall colors based upon your village theme and how you want it to appear. Since I designed this for my Halloween Village I decided to go with a slimy green effect.  To get this slime effect I painted everything green (except the glow-in-the-dark areas already painted) using "Christmas Tree Green" acrylic paint. I then added some neon green on top to highlight the stream sections. To further highlight I used neon yellow very minimally on the edges of each stream section. I finished painting it by adding a light reflection effect. I used a white chalk pen (purchased at the dollar store) to dot on top of the yellow highlights where I thought the light would naturally reflect off a liquid. 

    Seal, Shine, & Protect

I wanted my slime waterfall to have a glossy finish, so I coated it with a layer of paint on polyurethane then topped that with a triple shine acrylic spray-on sealant, and let it dry for 24 hours before handling.