I SPENT THE LAST COUPLE OF DAYS CREATING SOME SIGNS WHICH I’LL PUT OUT NEXT SPRING. I USED A NEAT PROGRAM CALLED “SIGN CREATOR,” (MAKES MULTIPLE SCALES) IN WHICH I PRINTED THE SIGNS ON PHOTO PAPER AND THEN LAMINATED THEM. I ATTACHED THEM WITH SUPER GLUE TO STYRENE PLASTIC SHEETS. SELECTED POSTS ALSO OF STYRENE AND PAINTED THEM ALUMINUM. WHAT DO YOU THINK?
I HAD PLANNED TO USE DECALE PAPER WHICH I PURCHASED, BUT MY INK-JET PRINTER JUST SMEARED. WOULD PROBABLY WORK WITH A LASER PRINTER I THINK.
Howdy John, Your signs look great. I fired up the coumputer to make a sign for a new building I’m scratching and thought I’d check the fourm, glad I did.
Try printing on vinyl adhesive paper from www.papilio.com. I was turned onto this stuff last year, and have become a believer. It’s ink-jet compatible, and once sprayed with a UV-stable clear coat (I use Krylon), holds up very well outside. I haven’t had my signs overwinter yet, but they’ve all held up much better than any of my other methods have in our less-than-kind Colorado sun.
The paper’s purported to be intended for outdoor applications, so in theory it should do well.
Great information. Thank you! My efforts at making signs has been really bad. I’ve just started toying with Office Depot “Bumper Stickers” inkjet computer paper. The few test signs I made survived the recent rains with no smearing of the ink and the signs did not fall off of the buildings. You have to download the templates on line (had to download from Avery I think it was as the Office Depot download kept failing). You are limited to two bumper sticker size peel off’s per sheet and it only prints in black. Takes some manuerving to get it all to do what you want for signs instead of bumper stickers but it does have potentil. I wil look into your site though and already have it as a “favorite.”