Since I started bullet journaling, I’ve always wanted to own the coolest stationery. The new pens, the new notebooks, and there are so many! But one thing I’ve never really coveted are notebook covers. I’ve always just thrown my notebooks into my handbag and not worried about them. I just figured a notebook cover would just add more bulk for me to carry around.
That is until I discovered Galen Leather.
I have perused their website time and again over the last couple of years, drooling, fantasising. Always finding it hard to decide what notebook cover I would buy if I could. Would I go with a zipped up folio or an elasticated cover? And what kind of leather? And what colour? So many colour choices!
Recently I was lucky enough to have Galen Leather reach out to me to try one of their products and I’m going to share my thoughts now that I’ve got my hands on one of these pretties. Scroll down for my Galen Leather review.
About Galen Leather
Galen Leather create hand-crafted leather good for people who love to put pen to paper. Some of their offerings include notebook covers, pencil cases, pens and notebooks. They are a small family owned company based in Turkey and ship worldwide. You can read more about their amazing and incredibly touching story here.
Galen Leather Review – A5 Notebook Cover
I received an A5 Notebook cover in Natural. This size is perfect for my bullet journals as I’m usually an A5 dot grid kinda girl.
Delivery was speedy, from Turkey to NZ it only took a week. Inside my parcel was a lovely box. I’m a sucker for beautiful packaging. Even though we should be reducing where we can, I love this box, and I know that I’ll be repurposing it to store stickers, paper and other ephemera.
Also within my parcel was a little pouch containing some added extras. These were some packets of tea, one happened to be Early Grey which is my favourite (how did they know?!), Turkish coffee and an evil eye trinket which you could use a planner charm.
On opening the beautiful Galen Leather box I was presented with my beautiful Notebook cover.
The leather has a lovely matt finish with burnished edges and is hand stitched. It feels rather stiff, but as with all leather goods I’m sure it will soften in time. There is a large elastic closure. This is unlike any other elastic closure I’ve seen before. First, it is large as I just said, but it sits on the left hand side of the cover and you pull it over the left hand side of the book. It totally goes against what you are used to with elastic closures on notebooks and does take a bit of getting used to.
My Galen Leather cover was personalised on the outside with my initials with letters that are just the perfect size. Inside the cover itself you’ll find two big pockets on either side. These are large enough to fit a mini iPad, but I don’t have one of those so could test it out. You fix your notebook to the cover by slipping your back cover under the large elastic band. This is great as it allows you to still close your notebook with your notebooks elastic closure also.
On the left hand side are further pockets and slots enabling you to keep bank cards, stickers, notes, pens, pens and more pens. Plus there is a pen loop. The pen loop actually fits my TWSBI fountain pen which is great as none of the pen looks in my notebooks have been large enough for it.
You could fit a number of pens into the cover if you wanted. Although I find that the cover gets too bulky when you load it up with pens. But I love the big pockets so that I can fit my large sticker sheets as well as my smaller sticker sheets.
Overall I just love the look and feel of this notebook cover. It is elegant and minimal and so well crafted. It’s sturdy and durable and will last me a very very long time. I’m definitely looking forward to purchasing further covers to add to my collection. The only issue is, which one first?
Where to Buy?
Galen Leather notebook covers are available from their website – www.galenleather.com. You will find a range of colours and sizes including A6, travellers and A5. There is something to meet everyone’s needs.
If you would like a 10% discount on your order, feel free to use my referral link here.
Happy journaling,
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