Colorado Springs homeless woman finds trade in making signs

Cardboard signs fly as makeshift flags for the state of despair among the homeless in Colorado Springs, but one homeless woman isn’t just writing pleas for help, she’s turning sign-making into a business.

Christina Thompson has crafted signs on whatever cardboard material and pens or markers that she can find, but her signs are more legible than the average scrawl.

Somewhere along the way, she got the idea to make signs for other people for a small cost. ( PHOTOS ) They range from 50 cents to just a few dollars.

While she may be getting business by cleaning up the messages being displayed by other homeless people, she also has small pieces of artwork akin to popular street graffiti styles.

Thompson’s gallery is the city itself, and her canvas is cardboard — she uses sticks and twine to fasten the signs to street signs and poles. Other works are laid out on display for sale and held down with rocks.

At $3 per custom message, you might see some more creative signs on the streets — the equivalent of lipstick on the pig that is a growing homelessness problem in Colorado Springs. But you also might see Thompson grow into a success story.