I really dig the old travel posters from the 1950s and 1960s. They take me back to an era that I have only seen in the movies – a time when women got dressed up to fly and the men always looked as dapper as Don Drapper. The colors and the types of drawings in these posters are right up my alley. They are, in a word, happy.
The original versions of these vintage travel posters fetch a pretty penny, so I’ll likely never own one. But, I did come across a site that has hundreds of these posters available for free download. They have more than just travel posters, but those are the ones I love the most. I mean, just look at these.
After hours of looking through these posters, I settled on one to work on – a poster advertising the Tomorrowland Skyway at Disneyland. It really makes my heart happy.
These posters are high resolution and pretty large, but I resized the Skyway download to fit on a legal sized sheet of paper. I printed it out and used spray adhesive to attach it to a piece of Dollar Tree foam core. Then, I used an X-Acto knife and a straight edge to trim off the excess foam core. You don’t actually have to attach it to foam core, though. If you print it on cardstock, you could put it in a picture frame and it would look great.
I decided that I wanted to glitter all of the red portions of the poster to give it some more character. So, working a section at a time, I painted some white school glue with a little artist’s paintbrush onto the poster and poured glitter on it. Then, I’d shake it off and work on the next little section. It didn’t take much talent above a steady hand.
Once the glue was dry, I brushed off any wayward pieces of glitter with an old eyeshadow brush and then sprayed the whole poster with a clear acrylic sealer.
The end result looks really cool. It’s vintage with a twist – just like I like it. There’s no reason why you can’t put your own spin onto vintage!
What do you think? What travel location would you select?
love it! both the original poster and the glitter you added :). I’ve looked at the site before, but haven’t gotten around to printing anything out yet. I wish they had more Disney posters on there!
What an awesome resource! I love that tomorrowland printable and can’t wait to see what else they have. Thanks for sharing!
I adore this idea!
Love it and I am totally copying you!
Wow..great site..thanks so much for sharing it, I love old posters, especially from the 30’s era..
Every time I find the ‘Net getting stagnant, I come across another great site, now through you, and I really do appreciate it.
love it!!!!! although the hawaii pic looks like they are frantically rowing away from a tsunami!! lol
SO COOL!!!!! I love what you did. I need to go check out the site.
Love it!
I’ve been looking for some-thanks for the source!
Love it! Thanks for sharing.