Jo Haywood talks to a Stamford Bridge woman who has booked a place in her own family history.

THERE is nothing more boring than looking through someone else's family photos. You don't care who is married to who; your interest in their holiday in Skegness circa 1974 is minimal; and endless black-and-white images of pinched-faced old ladies in unsuitable hats leave you yawning like a hippo.

But Caroline Hetherton's family album is different. Every meticulously designed page tells a story, with pictures, snippets of information and decorative embellishments contributing to make it an engaging family narrative.

Her books - there are many - are not your common or garden photo albums, they are scrapbooks. But how did her passion for scrapbooking begin?

"My niece was pregnant and I got really upset because the baby would never know her great-grandparents, my mum and dad" Caroline explained. "I had a box full of photographs and decided it might be a nice idea to put them together in a scrapbook."

Initially it was hard. The photographs, many of which she hadn't looked at for years, brought memories flooding back of her mum and dad, who died ten and six years ago respectively.

"I cried and cried," said Caroline. "But then the happiness of the photographs began to make me feel happy too. It made me feel that Mum and Dad were not completely gone."

Scrapbooking is fast becoming a popular hobby in the UK. It is a decorative way of preserving memories using photographs, memorabilia (anything from postcards to bus tickets) and all manner of embellishments such as ribbons, buttons and bows.

Caroline now readily admits she is an addict. She is well on her way to creating a book for every member of her family - baby Eve, who started the whole thing, is now five months old - and is looking forward to starting on her husband's side.

She has been known to get up at 6am to get a head start on her scrapbooking and now happily swaps evenings in front of the TV for a couple of hours with her glue pot and papers. But she believes the effort reaps ample rewards.

"Looking at photographs of my family encouraged me to spend more time with them," said Caroline, who is now launching her own scrapbooking course for beginners. "I now see my uncle every month and am in regular contact with my aunt in America.

"This whole process has brought my family even closer together. And it means that my mum and dad will never be nameless photographs in a box. They will always be part of the family because we will always remember them."

Updated: 16:14 Friday, February 10, 2006