Decorating a transportation nursery or kids room with 3D wall art is SO much more fun than using ordinary canvas transportation art. That dimensional element takes a plain wall to a whole new level.
And creating your own 3D art is not as difficult as you may think. The DIY transportation art project below contains step by step instructions and FREE patterns for making your own 3D cement truck. The truck is adorable as a stand alone piece of wall art, but it can be combined with this excavator, bulldozer, and dump truck to make a set of 4 transportation vehicles that will give your room an amazing focal point.
This project is crafted from wood, and it is entirely doable even if you do not have a saw. An alternative to cutting the pieces yourself, is to do an online search for a local business with a CNC router (such as WoodCraft) who can cut the vehicle pieces for you. Businesses like this typically will have a supply of wood already on hand so all they need is the set of patterns provided below in order to cut out the vehicle parts.
supplies:
- cement truck pattern DOWNLOAD HERE
- pencil
- scissors
- very strong wood glue such as Titebond III
- strong clear adhesive such as J B Weld epoxy or Gorilla epoxy
- jigsaw or band saw
- 14 inch x 14 inch wood panel
- wood craft supplies shown in the instructions below (3 wheels, 3 small circles, 1 wood button)
- square wood dowel
- MDF (medium density fiberboard) or smooth birch plywood in 3 different thicknesses (1/4 inch, 1/2 inch, and 3/4 inch thick)
- 220 or 320 grit sandpaper
- primer
- paint
STEP 1: DOWNLOAD PATTERNs
The first step in making your 3D cement truck wall art is to download the cement truck pattern. Make sure that your print settings are set to 100% scale so that all of the pieces print at the correct size. Then cut the pieces out.
step 2: trace patterns onto wood & cut out
Place patterns on MDF or birch plywood and trace around them with a pencil. A ruler helps for keeping the edges straight.
I used MDF because it has a nice smooth surface and it’s usually inexpensive. If you’re wanting vehicles that have more of a wood grain look, then birch plywood is a good option. Home Depot sells both MDF and birch plywood in small sheets called “handy panels”. These handy panels are large enough to make not only this cement truck, but also an excavator, dump truck and bulldozer.
After you finish tracing, use a jigsaw or band saw to cut out the clouds, mixer, truck front, window, and cement mixer.
To make the cement truck bed, use a portion of the square wood dowel and cut it as shown below
step 3: gather remaining supplies
In addition to all of the pieces that you cut above, you will also need these supplies: 14in. x 14 in. birch wood panel, 3 wood wheels, 3 small wood circles, a 3/4 inch wood button to use for a headlight, and a 3/4 inch diameter square wood dowel cut to a length of 14 inches long to use for the road under the wheels.
Altogether, the pieces for your 3D transportation wall art will look like this:
Use wood glue to attach small circles to the center of each wheel to cover the hole in the middle. (In the photo above, you’ll see an example of how a wheel should look after a small wood circle has been added to the center.)
step 4: prime
Coat the wood panel and all of the 3D wood vehicle pieces with a coat of primer. When the primer is dry, lightly sand using 220 or 320 grit sandpaper. Then, you are ready to paint!
step 5: paint
To paint the cement truck, I used small 8oz. paint samples that you can get at home improvement stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s. While they’re actually made for people who want to try out a shade of paint on their wall before committing to buying a whole gallon, those little samples are also perfect for small projects like this–they’re economical (usually less than $4), and you can get them mixed in any color. That makes it really easy to coordinate your art colors to match the rest of your room decor. About 2 coats will give you good coverage.
step 6: assemble
Next use wood glue or another very strong adhesive like J-B Weld epoxy or Gorilla epoxy adhesive to assemble all the painted vehicle parts together to make your 3D truck wall art.
All done and ready to display!
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