DIY Lava Lamp

How to Make

1. Take an empty plastic or glass bottle and rinse thoroughly. Leave to dry. Fill the bottle a quarter full with water. Pour vegetable oil into the bottle, almost up to the top but not quite. What you’ve got now is what looks like a gloopy mess, but don’t worry.
2. Next pour a few drops of food colouring into the mixture. You’ll notice that the oil and water have separated and the food colouring is dropping to the bottom. This is how it should be.
3. Take a mini paper plate and measure out the centrepoint. Cut a slit from one side to the centre point then fold to make a pointed lampshade shape and fix in place with Glue Dots. Decorate as desired, we used self-adhesive gems and Pictixx Glitter pens. Then take the bottle lid and fix it to the lampshade with a glue dot.
4. To activate the lamp pop an alka seltzer into the mixture – break it into two halves first – and you’ll see the water shoots upwards, taking some of the colour with it to create a ‘lava’ effect.

Top Tip

It’s important that you don’t fill the bottle too high with vegetable oil or it will overflow when you add the alka seltzer