If you’re in a bind and don’t have valid registration for your vehicle, whipping out some cardboard and colored markers for a little DIY project is not the way to go, unless you want to end up with a felony charge on your hands. That’s the lesson police say one New York woman learned when she was caught driving with a license plate of her own creation.

An Erie County police officer spotted the illegal plate when pulling over the 28-year-old driver in Springville, NY, the sheriff’s office said on Facebook.

The driver had no license plate on the front of the vehicle, and on the back, she’d placed a blue and yellow cardboard cut-out with some letters, numbers and the words, “EMPIRE STATE” on it.

“In case you are wondering, homemade cardboard license plates are NOT legal,” the post read. “The homemade plate was seized and placed into evidence.”

She was driving with a suspended registration and no insurance, officials say, and is now facing a felony count of possessing a forged instrument, a misdemeanor count of operating a vehicle with a suspended registration and three vehicle and traffic infractions.

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