I think we’ve all heard some version of the saying that constraints can be great for creativity. I was faced with a constraint of sorts recently – what do I do with all of this leftover leather that isn’t large enough to cover new journals, but it still feels like such a waste to simply throw it away?

For a long time, I did not know what to do with these scraps. Until one day I came across this idea of a field notebook maintained by Leonardo da Vinci – a small pocket notebook that he carried everywhere with him and used it to jot down his observations and musings. I’ve written about field notebooks in the past and the power of jotting down your ideas on an ongoing basis.

And so it hit me – why not use the leftover leather to make pocket notebooks? While not enough for entire journals, I had enough for small and slim notebooks. And so yes, that’s what I did. And I have to say, they look so cute and adorable! I love them, if I may say so myself. They look great and are perfect for carrying literally in your back pocket – their thickness is just 0.2 inches.

And I was delighted when someone ordered 4 of these from my shop earlier this week, for their entire family! They plan to use them on a trip to jot down their thoughts and paste prints of photos 🙂 🙂 How cool is that! And to think that this all came from a constraint around odd shaped leftover leather scraps.

If you’re facing constraints with anything in your life right now – can you use the constraint to your advantage?