Some time ago I saw a wonderful water effect tutorial done by Karen Carey. I used it for my fishing shack scene and many people had asked how it was done. I contacted Karen who graciously gave me permission to copy her instructions and she provided the photographs as well. Her project was a Sea Shanty Kit and to the left is the water as I did it for my Fishing Shack scene.
Making water with Tin Foil
...These are the instructions that came with my Sea Shanty Kit ... I took a workshop from Mary Jean Emory at the Gulf Show in New Orleans in 2004 and she showed us how to make water with aluminum foil.
We used the heavy-duty foil. It was about 2-3" bigger on all 4 sides than the wood we glued it to. We were doing a large piece of wood about 12" x 15". For smaller pieces the foil doesn't have to be so much bigger and the thinner foil might work better on really small areas.