I've been planning on making my own bus scroll for years, ever since I first started seeing the originals from England on line, like here and here. Then I started seeing signs that people made like here and here. I didn't want a random one with streets or areas that meant nothing to me and I decided I could make one representing the buses I rode around my town when I was a kid. I lived on the #1 Folsom Blvd. line in Sacramento, CA. and that was the main bus I took to go downtown. From there you could get to other areas of town although I mostly just went downtown to shop or go to the movies or hang out in Capitol Park feeding the squirrels. My mother and I would get on the bus to go downtown to have lunch with my father while he was at work. I couldn't remember most of the actual routes but was able to find some references online and just winged it for the rest of them. I also wanted to make an eye chart for some odd reason, I guess just because I like typography. I could have made the ones you see all over the internet like these on Pinterest where the letters make cute sayings but I just wanted a standard one
THE PRINTING
I used Microsoft Publisher, to design the printing. I picked different fonts and messed around with layout and stuck it on a flash drive and took it to Staples for an Engineering Print. This is a super reasonable printing method. It’s only for black and white and it’s on regular paper, but I don’t think it’s too thin. They can do very large prints for around $2 each. The problem first arose when they tried to download my document. I had a very old version of Publisher and they couldn't duplicate some of the fonts and the spacing was off also. So back home and redid it in Word. Back to Staples and what they ended up doing was making an 11x14 print and then scanning that and printing from their scan. I got a 22x32 of the bus scroll so I could wrap it around the edges of the canvas and a 12x22 for the eye chart. Total cost a little less than $4.
I think I did the eye chart in something else but can’t remember now, maybe PicMonkey or iPiccy. I can’t remember where I got that textured background on the eye chart.
THE GLUING – OH OH
I had several canvasses with ugly painting on them that I got at an estate sale for fifty cents each. I would have preferred a long skinny canvas but wanted to work with what I had so I picked the 20x30 one for the bus scroll and the 10x20 for the eye chart because I thought it was too small for the bus scroll. I decided on spray glue because I didn’t want wrinkles and I knew Mod Podge or gel medium would cause wrinkles. I put the papers face down on my island and traced around the canvas onto the back after carefully centering the canvas. The eye chart was pretty easy since it was small. I took it outside and just held the top and sprayed. Carefully carried it into the house and laid it face down on the island and lined up the canvas with my pencil lines and pressed down. I smoothed with my hands on the inside and then turned over and pressed and tried to work out any air pockets (there are a few remaining but not horrible and with the pattern of the background don’t show much). Cut in at the corners, several different ways at each corner trying for a best corner. Found that it didn’t matter that much which way I did it. Used gel medium to stick down the edges around the canvas, as I figured a few wrinkles there wouldn’t really matter.
Ok not bad.
Now the problems begin. It didn’t seem like it was windy outside. I knew I couldn’t just hold the bus scroll paper so took it out front and laid it on a bush and sprayed. Picked it up to go inside and there was a little gust of wind, combined with thin paper that had been rolled. Of course part of the bottom rolled and blew up and stuck. I tried but even as I was trying I knew you can’t unstick it, especially on black, every mark would show. Of course it wouldn’t unstick and only got worse with trying. Here’s the result, which included some frustration taken out on it.
Into the trash and off to Staples again.
This time I got smart and clipped some "chip clips", those things you use to keep your potato chip bags closed, to the bottom of the print so it wouldn't roll up and so the wind wouldn't blow it.
Outside again and sprayed the back with Super 77 spray glue and carried it inside and laid it on the island face down. Put my canvas on it lined up with my pencil marks and pressed down on the inside. Flipped it over to press it some more on the front and saw some shiny marks on the front. I don't know what it was, maybe something on the island, I have no idea. Also, saw some shiny fingerprints on the front, guess my hands weren't super clean. The problem is that everything shows on the black. Used some gel medium again to do the edges. See that pie in the background, maybe Sara Lee was the grease culprit.
Here's some of the spots, they show pretty well in the photos, and in person.
Here they are on my shelf in my craft room. I tried to lap the eye chart over the shiny spot on the bus scroll to semi conceal it. It's a semi fail due to the shiny spot and finger prints, not living room worthy but fine in my craft room and basically cost me $5 for both so no big loss financially.
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