Shark Week Slide Sneak Peek!

So! As you know, I am an avid shark week fan! This year, Brenna and I wanted to top last year's party, so we came up with a brilliant idea! I figured I'd post the project just in case anyone else wants to get creative and do this in the next week as well! It's fast, easy, and fairly cheap!

First, let me show you the plan we had in mind:

A SHARK SLIP AND SLIDE!!!

Our set designer from Studio C drew this up for me and I was so excited to get to work on it! After discussing the plans with some plumbing guys, here's what we decided we needed.

1.  30' of 3/4" Pex piping (PVC would be too rigid to hold the arch shape).

2.  3/4" fasteners. We needed four 90 degree elbow fasteners for the corners, and seven tee fasteners for each joint in the middle and then for a place to fasten the hose on the edge.

90 degree elbow fastener

Tee fastener

3. Pipe cutters, a drill, and a 1/8" drill bit 

4. White shower curtains and gray fabric (we used some old Ikea curtains)

5. Scissors, ruler, fabric tape, tent staples, a hammer, and painters plastic

(For the fabric tape, we used Peel n Stick, which apparently works fine when it gets wet)

6. Black spray paint and a cardboard stencil

 

To make the frame of the shark, we needed each length side of the arch to consist of four 2.5' pipes, connected down the middle with five 2' pipes.

We then used the connectors in the corners and middle joints and on the side to connect the hose.

It ended up looking like this!

If the fasteners slip out of the piping, you might need some teflon tape to wrap the fasteners so that they're a tighter fit. You can see how wrap the fasteners here. (:

Stephen drilled some holes throughout the frame. REMEMBER NOT TO DRILL ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE PIPE. Only drill halfway. This way, the water can spray down on the people sliding under it! Here is how we spaced the holes:

Remember, the holes are tiny, so they don't take up as much room as the diagram. You can make fewer holes if you want, but don't do more, otherwise it will affect the water pressure.

Next is the fun part! We laid out the gray fabric (these had previously been used as drop cloths, so there's paint on the underside (: ) underneath the piping, holes facing up, since this will be the under side of the shark and the water will spray down onto the people sliding under it!

Using fabric tape, we fastened the fabric around two of the edges of the frame, leaving holes for the stakes.

Next, we cut teeth out from a folded white shower curtain so that we were cutting two at the same time that were connected at the fold. We measured about 6" at the top of the teeth, but you could do wider.

We then wrapped the teeth around the pipe where the holes were on the lengthwise side and taped them to the pipe under the tooth seam using double sided tape. Now with the holes facing out the open side of the fabric, we can have a sprinkler system coming out of the shark's teeth!

Then, we cut the gray fabric around the teeth and sprinkler connector. After that, we fastened the other two sides of the frame's fabric, pulling it as taut as we could so that the fabric wouldn't sag.

Next came the eyes! Sharks have black, lifeless, circular eyes. Super creepy, but super easy for a project like this! We just took a cereal box and made a circular stencil with spray paint, and voila!

Now the only thing left to do is to plug the hose in, using our handy male connecting hose adaptor, turn it on, and we have a shark arch for the slip and slide!!!

I'll post more pictures when we actually use it for the party, but for now, all you shark lovers can try it for yourselves! (: