Good Things Happen Over Coffee
- By Joan
- August 1, 2016
- 4 Comments
I may have been on vacation last month but, I still kept my eyes open on my travels because you never know when inspiration will strike. The sign you see above was near the trailhead of a hike we did in the Johnston Canyon in Banff, Alberta, Canada. As you know, I have a weakness for vintage style signs and one painted on corrugated metal was calling my name.
If you ever visit Banff I highly recommend the hike, but go early or late in the day to avoid the crowds. In a three mile (roundtrip) hike you can view seven? gorgeous waterfalls all while walking on paved trails and catwalks that are attached to the limestone cliff walls. Actually, I have no idea how many waterfalls we saw, because we weren’t really sure when a super high white water rapid was actually classified as a waterfall. Let’s just say we saw a bunch and I think I’m pretty safe in saying that the two waterfalls above are actually waterfalls.
I just happened to have a nice piece of rusty corrugated metal sitting in my garage just waiting for me to make my own Coffee sign.
When I was at the park, I made sure that I took a picture of the sign as straight on as I could get. I took this picture over to Microsoft Publisher where I enlarged it to my sign size of 28″x 12″.
This is a print preview, a sign that size will print out on 6 sheets of paper.
The sign was printed out, trimmed then taped back together.
To cut the metal, I used the angle grinder my kids had given me for my birthday last year.
To make it easier on myself, I transferred and tackled one element at a time. First up…the steaming cup of coffee.
I covered the back of the paper with chalk, taped the cup in place, then traced over the lines with a pen. The chalk serves as carbon paper to transfer on dark surfaces.
The coffee and cup were filled in with white paint and a fine paint brush.
Changed up my transfer technique a bit for the COFFEE. This time I cut out the coffee lettering, taped in place, then traced around the lettering with a sharpie.
Once again, just painted in the lettering with white paint.
For the remaining lettering I resorted back to the chalk transfer.
Once the paint was dry, an electric sander sanded off a bit of the corrugated metal for a bit more of that vintage look.
I did grind the cut edges of the metal a bit, but since they were still a bit rough decided to mount the sign on pallet wood backing both for stability and it keeps those rough metal edges away from the sides of the sign.
Johnston Canyon was beautiful and while other more sane people pick up a tshirt or a postcard as a souvenir from their travels, I pick up a sign. Actually, I took a picture of another sign at the same trailhead, this one for ice cream, which I may just have to replicate too.
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[…] I used another piece of the tin to make a vintage style coffee sign inspired from a trip I took last month. You can find that sign here. […]
Great holiday sharing – and pinned your corrugated Coffee sign. WoW. Great ‘how to make’ too.
Joy
Your corrugated coffee sign is BRILLIANT!!!! Your directions are clear and the illustration pictures are perfect. Thank you for creating the perfect gift for my daughter and son-in-law now stations in Guantanamo Bay. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
[…] used another piece of the tin to make a vintage style coffee sign inspired from a trip I took last […]