I think this was the most difficult roundup I’ve ever done. Life has been hard to document over the last year, but this was a particularly scary month in the United States. I couldn’t exactly leave political events off of my recap and I wouldn’t want to do that. I also needed to be sure they were recorded in a way that will be suitable for all viewers of my album. I plan to do more journaling of the events that took place, but won’t be sharing those publicly.

I hope that by sharing my approach, it will make it easier for you to decide how you want to do your own documenting.

Here are the “ingredients” of my page:

• Big Story template

• Paper designed by me (will be released in a future collection)

• Persnickety Prints free timeline - It’s actually grouped in with the 2020 downloads so look there

• Graphic from New York Times

• Time Magazine cover

• Blank card and numbers template

• This Month card (slightly recolored)

Design decisions:

• I decided to go with the black & white (and yellow) version of the timeline. I loved using the colorful ones last year, but felt ready for a change.

• I thought a black background would be a good way to have the colors of the other images stand out.

• I picked a bright blue for the numbers card because I’m going to include some photos on the opposing page that have bright blues and yellows in them.

• With all the information and bright colors, I decided to keep everything else very simple.

Keeping track of what happened:

• Can you believe that I decided to start keeping a daily news journal at the beginning of the year? That was a fortuitous decision on my part! It ended up being more work than I intended because of the sheer amount of news that happened in the first few weeks, but I’m so glad I have that information. Now it’s become a small daily habit for me that doesn’t take much time.

• We barely did anything and hardly went anywhere so I didn’t have much to look through on my calendar.

• Unfortunately, I only took a handful of photos this month. I took a lot of other photos of things I needed to do or buy to use as reminders. I am going to do much better in February!

What are your tricks for roundups?

• Do you have any tips or tricks that help you document each month? Do you keep any daily or weekly records? What helps you remember to include events in your roundup?

• Is there anything you would like to see me include that would be helpful to you?

• Do you have any questions for me?

Feel free to leave a comment or use the contact form to send me an email. Thanks in advance!