Central Crafts is a family-run business based in the UK, offering a variety of journals and photo albums, as well as other stationery, gifts and craft items. They have a wide line of leather covered journals made in Italy, and they provided me with a free sample of the “tiny” size Firenze Classico Wrap Journal, which is part of their Leatherkind brand– let’s take a look!
The first impression is “wow, this really is tiny!” When closed, the journal measures about 2.5″ square and 1″ thick. It is a rather adorable little chunk– in fact the size and shape remind me of the “Chunky” chocolate bars I used to sometimes eat as a kid. I haven’t had one in years, but apparently they are still available!
The leather has a soft, supple yet sturdy feel, and the color is a rich brown. Inside, you have plain white paper. There are no branding marks anywhere on the journal– there’s no room for them! The paper signatures are stitched and glued at the spine. On the sample I tested, some extra glue seemed to have left a residue on the page edges, as they had a slightly rubbery feel and some were stuck together, though they were easy to pull apart.
The notebook does open flat, but at this small size, it is quite awkward to old it open to write in. The paper is very nice, though– works beautifully with fountain pens, and bleed-through and show-through were better than average.
This journal is really cute and the materials seem to be of a very good quality. The size is not going to be practical for all uses, but it would make a nice little gift. For more useability, I’d go with one of Central Crafts’ other products that use the same paper, which is featured in all of their Leatherkind collection, except for those with marbled edges.
If you’d like to add one of these adorable journals to your own notebook collection, check out the online store at Central Crafts— they ship worldwide. You can also enter my giveaway for one brand new tiny journal just like the one reviewed!
The winner will be randomly selected from entries received in any or all of these ways:
On Twitter, tweet something containing “Central Crafts Leather Journal @CentralCrafts @NotebookStoriesâ€, and follow @CentralCrafts and @NotebookStories
On Facebook, “likeâ€Â  the Notebook Stories page and the Central Crafts page and post something containing the words “Central Crafts Leather Journal†on the Notebook Stories page.
On your blog, post something containing the words “Central Crafts Leather Journal†and “Notebook Stories†and link back to this post.
The deadline for entry is Friday February 9, 2018 at 11:59PM, EST. Good luck everyone!
And please remember to check my posts on Facebook and Twitter for an announcement of the winner. Please allow a couple of weeks for me to check all the entries and determine the winners.