Happy August!!  Is today really the first day of August?!  What happened to July?? At least it is almost my birthday!

Since it is August, thoughts turn to the start of school! And with that, some states have a Sales Tax Holiday to help families with back to school expenses.  Twelve states are having a sales-tax holiday for school supplies on certain dates in August. The states typically define school supplies as “any items normally used by students in a standard classroom for educational purposes.”  Stampin’ Up! is, therefore, limiting our exemptions per the state statute based on item description and price.

Here is a chart Stampin’ Up! provided with the states and dates and links to more information. Check and see if your state is listed. Some products that Stampin’ Up! sells can be considered school supplies and therefore, you may be able to save the sales tax. Even though a state is listed, not all communities may be participating.  The dates are very limited to be sure to order during that time if you are able to take advantage of your state’s sales tax holiday.

Each state has specific rules they consider to be school supplies–this may be by description or by price. The table below shows the items that are included per state statute definitions. The list of items below will be state tax-free during the holiday period. Please note that you must place your order with Stampin’ Up!^® during the tax holiday period (which is midnight on the first day to midnight on the last day of the tax holiday) in order to receive these items tax-free . Also, keep in mind that this is a state sales-tax holiday and may not apply to additional county, city, and special-jurisdiction taxes.

Here’s a specific chart of which Stampin’ Up! items apply in each state.  You’ll have to click to enlarge.

Click to View

Many of my crafting supplies through the years when my kids were in school often came in handy for school projects, even the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby! So make sure you are stocked up with your papercrafting supplies before school starts!

Shop Stampin’ Up! Online for all your papercrafting and school supply needs!

Here are the new Stampin’ Up! Weekly Deals for July 7 through Monday, July 13. Remember, these products will only be available at these prices while supplies last.  Last week two of the items sold out the first day. There are more items so it is harder to get one big picture to post here!  Just click the link or the photo to go to the store page where you can see each product and get the information!

Also check the Clearance Rack before you finalize your order, just in case you find a bargain you want!

Something new on the Online Store:  Project Ideas from Stampin’ Up! in the left sidebar!  Click on that link when you are in the store (or the photo below!) to see some of the catalog projects and the materials you need for them.

Today is July 7th so if you would like to join Paper Pumpkin and get the July kit in your mailbox in just a little over a week, be sure to subscribe HERE on my page! If you would like to add a month or more to your regular Stampin’ Up! order, you can get a prepaid subscription HERE.

Are you on my Mailing List??  If you are reading this blog post, or any of my other ones, I would love to have you sign up for my Mailing List to receive my monthly newsletter plus one other mid-month with the latest Stampin’ Up! news and offers plus exclusive projects you won’t find on my blog or Facebook Page. Occasionally I send out an extra email if there is BIG NEWS or something urgent I wouldn’t want you to miss.  But you won’t be bombarded by emails from me! Just sign up in the box in the top right or the pop up box and you will receive a FREE gift! Do it today so you will be set to get my July newsletter soon!

Check out these new Stampin’ Up! Weekly Deals for June 30, 2015 through Monday, July 6. Click on the photos to see the page in my Online Store.  I see several products I want! For sure you want the 2″ Circle Punch to fit in with some others you might have. If you don’t have the new In Color ink pads yet, get the In Color Markers and you can “marker up” your stamps if you want to use a new In Color. Sequins, ribbon, button and twine – always good for embellishing!  Sometimes it is the little bit of embellishment that makes the card. The Fast Fuse Adhesive, I admit is a little tricky to use, but now that I have the hang of it, I LOVE it. Very good adhesive. Sometimes I have to advance the tape myself a little bit in the dispenser, but otherwise it works great. (Not on the Weekly Deals, but I also love the new Tear & Tape Adhesive.  You should put that on your next order for sure!)

Also check out the Stampin’ Up! Clearance Rack.  There are new items on the Clearance Rack, while supplies last. Not quite what I was expecting and I don’t know what they did with the previous stuff, but there you have it. Check it out!

***Apparently Stampin’ Up! is working on some corrections to the Clearance Rack right now!  We’ll see! Check back a little later on.

Here are the new Stampin’ Up! Weekly Deals for today through Monday, June 22, 2015. Some good tools and accessories, plus three pretty ribbons for your Stampin’ Up! cards and projects. We’ve got the 1″ Square Punch and the Sweetheart Heart Punch, plus the popular Honeycomb Embossing Folder.  Think of the bee stamp in the Garden in Bloom Photopolymer Stamp Set and the English Garden Designer Paper with bees to go with it!

Check out the Weekly Deals and add them to your order from the new Stampin’ Up! Catalog! Just go to my Stampin’ Up! Online Store or contact me to order!

As I write this blog post, we are getting a little bit of rain from Tropical Storm Bill out in the Gulf of Mexico. I woke up to hear a bird chirping so I knew the dreaded heavy rain did not occur during the night. The good thing is that nothing is flooding yet and most people can easily get to work. The bad thing is most people can easily get to work this morning, but then what happens?! I don’t think anyone knows for sure yet, which is often the case with these tropical storms. The weather people can be sure they are moving in a certain direction and forecast heavy rain and flooding for an area, and then the storm moves a bit, speeds up or slows down, and everything changes. So while it seems like nothing is happening, we are getting bands of rain moving through in Houston, and Galveston and coastal areas are getting high surf and big waves.

I spent yesterday gathering storm supplies that we are always supposed to have on hand during hurricane season. I didn’t think much about it for this storm until I saw on Sunday night on the news that some store shelves had been emptied of bottled water! I didn’t have any trouble getting the supplies I needed early yesterday morning, but by later in the day grocery stores were mobbed and bottled water was gone!

Here are some of my supplies I picked up yesterday!  Fresh bottled water, canned soup, tuna, batteries, chocolate of course, paper towels, and why not some chocolate?! I also filled an ice chest with bags of ice to cool it down just in case and bought a power pack to charge my phone in case the power goes off. Usually you don’t need much of this stuff, it’s “just in case”! So far so good, except my bags of ice are probably going to melt before we might need them.

During our lemon of a refrigerator saga a year or so ago, we learned that even with a good ice chest, it really made a difference to insulate it with old blankets covering it. Really helped keep the cold in or the hot out!

So with my preparations made, hopefully I can do some stamping today during these bands of rain and hopefully we won’t get too much until everyone gets home from work tonight. It was only a few weeks ago, on Memorial Day, that Houston flooded from storms that unexpectedly formed right over us and didn’t move for hours. Those people whose homes flooded are just now starting to get them repaired, so it would be horrible for them to get more flooding. I also feel bad for people who rented a beach house in Galveston for a week and this is the week they got!

Check out the Stampin’ Up! Weekly Deals and see if there is anything you need!