Rainy Day Monday

Color me challenged. By that I mean I keep trying to put 10 pounds of tasks into a 5-pound day, if you get my drift. Since I am on vacation this week, I thought I'd get a head-start on projects for my June Stamp Camps. Here's my first one:

This started out with just the DSP layers, but they looked blah against the white card base, so I dressed them up with some coordinating card stock. The card uses the Island Oasis paper from the SU Summer Mini, and the Sweet Scoops stamp set, also from the Summer Mini. And for once I bought enough of this paper to go around, so I'm all set. One card down, three to go.

This next card is NOT a Stamp Camp card. It is made with Graphic 45 "A Proper Gentleman" papers:

I was going for the pin-striped suit + burgundy paisley tie look, which explains the single white button on that white strip of paper that I used to simulate the pinpoint white shirt. Yeah, I used to dress like this back in the day. Seriously.

The challenge here? One of the organizers of my Friday Farmers Market asked me to make her 10 plain cards. Plain - no ribbon, no bows, no froo-froo, no sentiments ... just.plain.notes. She actually sends cards (imagine that) and wants to be able to grab one from her stash without having to deal with sentiments or male/female appropriateness.

I was stunned. I mean, c'mon, NO RIBBON?! ACK! Now that's a challenge! So that explains this Graphic 45 paper - manly, and it doesn't need ribbon. I did add the button, though.

When she and I first spoke about this matter, she did agree that a plain all-occasion sentiment would be okay, like "thinking of you". So I took that card above and added the sentiment from SU's Trendy Trees set:

Oh, bother, it's crooked. But you get the idea, right? I'm not sure if this is what she's looking for, but I'll ask her when next I see her. What do you think? Do you like the plain one better, or the one with the sentiment (pretend it's straight)? I also thought I could make a fake pocket and put in a little handkerchief. Too much?

In other news, I plan to do battle with the State of Virginia today. Okay, that was harsh. I need to call them about their Sales Tax collection process. You see, I did a show there in November, so I applied for, and got, a Sales Tax id and a nice booklet of coupons. I filed my form for Nov & Dec, then I forgot about it. I got a delinquency notice from the State last week. It seems I need to file every month, whether I sell anything or not, and I need to check "I don't owe you anything because I didn't sell anything". This sounds like work, plus it will cost me a stamp. I'll ask them if I can file every 6 months instead, like Maryland lets me, or if I can change to a temporary tax id for the once a year I actually do a show. What a PITA. Wish me luck.

And thanks for stopping by!