Review of the Daycraft Handy Pick Holder

You are probably looking at this photo and wondering "Is that a wallet?"

Yes--and no.  The Daycraft Handy Pick Holder cover is a (wait for it) handy little holder that can be used to carry those little necessities that we need through-out the day.  It will certainly hold your money, but it holds a lot more.

I received a small Handy Pick along with the companion card holder, monthly day planner and sketchbook for purposes of this review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Before I go any further--I've got to tell you. The Handy Pick is light.  It's soft and supple and sturdy, but it's also light.  It looks like leather and feels like leather, but it doesn't weigh like leather! This is by far the lightest wallet/carrier/holder I have ever found.

That has become so important to me of late, with the problems I have in my neck and shoulders.

The Handy Pick is a crossover project between Daycraft and Daigo, combining refills/accessories  from Daigo and the Signature series from Daycraft.  The holder cover is purchased separately, and then each accessory is purchased separately, as well.  The idea is choice.  You decide what you want and get only what you want from the available accessories.

The refills and extras available for the Daycraft Handy Pick Holder include: Bookband ruler, Fastener pocket, sketchbook, notebook, weekly planner, monthly planner, and bookmark.


The Duo-tone soft cover is made from fine Italian PU.  It looks and feels very much like leather.  One of my friends insisted it even smelled like leather! (I have a poor sense of smell and can't verify that).

The cover comes in two sizes and 8 colors--

• large: 7.5 x 7.0 inches (w192mm x h178mm) 
• small: 6.5 x 5.5 inches (166 x 141 mm) 
• black, purple brown, pink, red, yellow, green, grey

It has a pocket on each side and a slot at the left hand side.  I'm using it for extra cards, but you could use it other things, such as the ruler accessory (I plan to buy one of those, myself).  This isn't a pocket--just a slit in the leather.  The stitch at the bottom holds in larger items, but it wouldn't work for keys or smaller objects.


Along with the Holder cover, I received a Daigo Monthly Planner, Sketchbook, and a card holder.

















The Planner and Sketchbook have matching covers and slide neatly into the pockets in the cover.

The Card holder has three pockets. I'm carrying two cards in each.

You can see all the stuff I've been able to fit into my Handy Pick holder, and this doesn't even show the credit cards I'm carrying as well, since I didn't want to post a photo of those, lol!

The monthly planner:
No. page: 56
Paper weight: 64 gsm
Paper color: white
Layout: Monthly grid.  Days are marked, but no other information is pre-printed.

 I was happy with this since I didn't get my Handy Pick until February, and I just started it with that month--no wasted pages!


The sketchbook:
No. page: 60
Paper weight: 64 gsm
Paper color: white
Layout: Blank pages, perforated for easy removal.


All of the refill books have the same lightweight cardboard cover in two-tone black and grey.

The paper is thin enough that there is some show-through as you can see in this scan. I used a Zebra G-301 pen, which doesn't have overly dark or wet ink, but there was still show-through.  I don't find that an inconvenience because I'll be using both books for quick notes and doodles, and I find it easy to use the showthrough in my artwork.

Back  of page                                         Front of page

I've been using the Handy Pick for a couple of weeks, letting it jostle around in my purse and treating it as I usually do--without much care, lol!  So what are my thoughts?

Did I mention the Handy Pick is light? Awesomely so.  Even full, it's smaller than most wallets designed for a purse (though it's too tall for most pockets).  The design makes it easy to reach what I want, and to put things back where they belong.

The cover hasn't picked up any scratches yet (except where I deliberately ran my thumbnail to see if would scratch.  Even then I have to hold it a certain way before I see it). Oils and Smudges wipe off except for the dots of craft glue.  In other words, the surface holds up as well as it does with most of the leather-like objects that are carried in my purse.

If I were going to suggest an improvement, it would be to add some kind of closure.

I like the flexibility of the design.  I'm even thinking of buying a cover or two to use for handmade journals.

I want to thank Daycraft for giving me the opportunity to review the Handy Picket holder!