Cardboard Garbage Truck

This was by far the largest project of the party but from the moment I saw pictures of garbage truck Halloween costumes on line I knew I needed to make a large scale yard ornament for our party. Little B loves making forts so I knew it would come in handy well beyond the party date and boy was I right. Since its completion we have spent hours dunking balls into it, snuggling up with books and blankets and of course playing hide and seek. Construction did take a while but it cost us less than $10 in supplies so to me it was way worth it. While we did a large scale version you could totally scale down your approach for a costume sized version this fall. Add a couple of shoulder straps to hang it from and you will be good to go!

1 large box (we used the box from our new microwave)

1 medium box (we used a medium home depot moving box left over from our move)

1 small box (we used a diaper box)

Packing tape- I keep this on hand for all sorts of projects

Glue gun and glue- This is my favorite crafting tool EVER.

Box cutter

3 cans of spray paint- 2 green, 1 yellow

4 pieces of black paper cut into large circles

Print outs for your graphics, we found all of ours on line for free.

Open the medium box completely flat. This is the box you will use to create the back hopper end of the truck. Lay the box out flat with the large box on top of it so that you can make sure the box with lines up. If the flattened box is wider and sticking out from underneath the large box use the box cutter to trim it to the correct size. Then tape the trimmed box piece to the back end of your truck allowing one of the corner folds to act as the shape for the pointed hopper. Once the piece is firmly secured reinforce the back end with extra pieces of cardboard and then cut a cover for the open spaces out of the leftover cardboard pieces. Use the box cutter to cut a door in the side of the box and a whole on the top so that the kids could pop open the top. Tape all pieces together securely. Spray paint the entire box dark green and set it aside to dry. Spray the small box yellow and set aside to dry. Once boxes are dry glue the yellow box onto the front end of the truck to use as a cab. Glue the wheels and the graphics on and you are finished.