FEATURED S:CY DESIGNER!

FEATURED S:CY DESIGN TEAM MEMBER
 Heather Bridges Topich

S:CY Featured Design Team Member Heather Bridges Topich

Heather Bridges Topich  was one of the first gals to apply to the most recent S:CY DT Call. When I saw her work, I knew she was a perfect fit for S:CY!

 Heather is currently on the Design Team at Journaling Junkie. She's a past Design Team member for My Scrapbooking Supplies, Sew Many Layouts, and SunnyGrls Fun Shoppe. She's also had nine layouts published in two recent issues of Scrapbook News and Review magazine.

You can find Heather participating in the Message Boards at both Dixie Pieces and Scrapdango. You'll know her there as hokieez.

Heather is Mom to 3 kiddos. She describes them as her "subject source" because "they will say or do something that I just KNOW has to be documented in their books."

Favouring layered embellishments and a shabby-chic style, Heather scrapbooks throughout her day "in little bits of time," as she decides how she wants a layout to come together. A long list of blogs make up Heather's "creative source." She has a system, and devotes some time every day to bookmarking layouts that "speak" to her.

Heather has been scrapbooking for about 15 years and has been very active in the craft for the past four. She's had time to develop some "fave" scrapbooking products! She tells me that she especially loves punches- BORDER punches... and in noting their expense, she jokingly adds that "40% off coupons help!"

Currently, white cardstock is her colour of choice, something she admits suprises her now. But, she says she loves "the look of white with a pop of colour!" 3-Ring style binders are her friend. At the moment, Heather says they are her preferred type of album... enthusiastically noting "I can't imagine my life without them!"

On the topic of purging and sorting, Heather's a fan of giving away items she can no longer use. She has a "donate pile" for those items and told me "Knowing that they will go to someone that can really use them makes it easy to clear them out of my stash!"

Heather is one very organized gal. She let me peek into some of her ways of doing things for this feature. Her cardstock is stored in a clear plastic bin, generally sorted by color. As far as patterned papers go, she stores them in a hard-sided expandable file, by type (e.g., spring, stripes, girly, vintage).
In talking about the finished product, Heather told me that each member of her family has their own set of albums, kept in chronological order. She also has a set of "family" albums... one pre-kids and one up to 2008. Then, in 2009, Heather did "Project 365/Life"... so 2009, 10 and 11 each have their own album. In those albums, she stores "not only the daily pics but also layouts about events in each of those years."

I asked Heather about how she feels about the idea/concept of being 'caught-up' with scrapping photos. She replied that she "used to be worried about getting caught-up, but I generally pick which stories are most important to me at the moment. As long as I get each of those told, I don't worry about getting them ALL told (at least not then!)"


Scrapbooking for Heather would be even more fun if she had an extended family member join her. She mentions that her 18 mos younger sister would be "AMAZING" at scrapbooking and hopes that she will join her one day! OK: Whaddaya say, sis?


Here are some of Heather's favourite projects~

"Firstborn" by S:CY Designer  Heather Bridges Topich

Heather says... "I love this layout because I was able to get a lot of my (not great quality) childhood pics scrapped in one fell swoop!"


"Paci Love" by S:CY Designer Heather Bridges Topich

 The word from Heather~ "This layout is one of my favorites because I used the Indie Girl line, my favorite ever from Sassafras! I also love that I did a page with only two pics. I tend to use way more than that. Simple is good, no?"


"Purpose" created by S:CY Designer Heather Bridges Topich 


What Heather had to say~ "This post by Becky Higgins inspired me. I've been pondering over the words and what they mean for my role as a mother. I love having it hanging where I can be reminded of the bigger picture that it points to."

Thanks Heather for allowing us a little peek into your life and work as a Mommy and a scrapbooker. Looking forward to the next 6 months as we get to know you better here at S:CY!

Hope you all enjoyed this Spotlight article, featuring S:CY Design Team Member Heather Bridges Topich.

 Have a wonderful day everyone!

:o) ~ Ali