Creative Inspiration

December 3, 2025

2025 Creative Wins from the Art Toolkit Team

Continuing our tradition from years past, our team celebrates personal creative victories with reflection and photos!

By The Art Toolkit Team

A watercolor illustration divided into two halves. The left side features a green, futuristic spacecraft with a vibrant planet and stars in the background, set against a rocky landscape. The right side shows a rocky environment with a dinosaur skeleton partially embedded in the earth, under a clear blue sky.

The end of the year is the perfect time to reflect on our creative growth and accomplishments. This tradition started two winters ago with reflections on resolutions made for 2023, followed by last year’s sharing of creative wins. For the third year running, we asked the Art Toolkit Team to think back on 2025 and share something created, dreamed up, practiced, or produced that we were proud of.

This year’s creative wins include a shared Moleskine Japanese Album, experimentations with Washi Tape, and forays into watercolor and woodworking. Read on to see what we made this year.

Brooke Weber

A framed watercolor painting of a koi fish is displayed on a shelf next to a plant. To the right, a vertical bookmark features a colorful illustration of a dog with a blue and patterned background. — (Left) “My housemate framed my fish for me after ‘borrowing’ it from the kitchen table.” —Brooke (Right) Watercolor and gel pen on Watercolor Bookmark Pad paper.

This year, a considerable portion of my creative allotment went to cobbling together words and writing poetry. I’ve found many more moments with my pen and ever-present little notebook than with my palette and water brush. That said, I’m happy to share a few of the small works I’ve managed to slosh down. One thing I am grateful for is art, in all its forms, as a vessel for memory and emotion.

—Brooke, Retail Manager

Tammy Xiao

A handcrafted wooden spoon with a long handle and a slightly curved bowl resting on a light wooden surface.

This past summer, I attended the Saskatoon Gathering in the Methow Valley, where I carved my first spoon out of river birch!

—Tammy, Marketing Assistant

Cole Morreale

A few face studies with unfinished color experiments, and a pose study of a girl sitting serenely.

A still life featuring a green glass pitcher, a dark ceramic jar, and a small purple object next to them, contrasted with a landscape painting of a snowy scene with dark trees and a blue sky. — (Left) A still life done at a friend’s house. (Right) Cole’s painting from Jared's Gouache Fundamentals Workshop.

This year was a slower one for art for me—while I feel like I didn’t create as much as I usually do, I am really proud of how much sketching I did overall! My comfort zone is in digital art, but this year I dove deeper into experimenting with watercolors and other supplies. I’m also really proud of myself for making time for it when I could, despite how busy this year was.

—Cole, Outreach Coordinator

Morgan Terry

A portrait of a standing toddler wearing a patterned pajama set, with a neutral background. Beside it, a collage of sketches featuring a child, various animals including a fox, and an illustration of a butterfly, showcasing a mix of playful and expressive artistic styles. — (Left) 24" x 36" portrait, oil on canvas. (Right) Morgan’s pages from the collaborative sketchbook with the Retail Team in gouache, pen, and water-soluble graphite.

My creative wins this year included working on large-scale children’s portraits in my studio and collaborating on a Japanese Album with the Retail Team. The first taught me a lot about how much I can accomplish in a limited time, how to paint efficiently, and how to appreciate small successes. In my shared sketchbook, I’m learning to sketch more freely and trust that it’s okay to show my messy process to my sketchbook buddies.

—Morgan, Customer Service & Retail Specialist

Maria Coryell-Martin

A woman with short curly hair wearing a red jacket sits at a table on a boat. Various art supplies, including a watercolor palette and sketchbooks, are spread out in front of her. The ocean is visible through large windows in the background. — Maria sits in the general cabin and sketches through the window with her snacks.

A bright artist's workspace featuring a watercolor palette, brushes, and glass jars next to a large window overlooking a calm waterway and distant shoreline. — Maria’s studio in the ferry’s wheelhouse.

Sketches and notes of the Anglerfish Sauna made by Travis Skinner.

A serene watercolor landscape featuring a calm body of water with distant landmasses. Soft hues of blue, green, and light yellow blend in the sky and water, creating a tranquil atmosphere. A silhouette of a boat is visible on the water. — A distant Kennewick ferry in Port Townsend Bay.

In 2025, a creative win for me was my artist-in-residency with the Washington State Ferries. Over the course of seven days and 38 crossings of the five-mile Port Townsend-Coupeville route, I completed more than 30 sketches and paintings of various sizes, filled a 22-page accordion journal, and offered two public art demonstrations.

The experience gave me a deeper appreciation for this key infrastructure for our region and the people who make it possible. This residency also highlighted the value of getting to know a subject through repetition: every crossing was different, from the light, atmosphere, sea state, and people. I’m planning a follow-up exhibition to showcase work from my residency, as well as studio paintings that inspire it!

—Maria, Co-Founder and Managing Director

Gina Vickrey

A watercolor painting of a small, whimsical ghost on a blue background, accompanied by a decorated orange pumpkin with black polka dots and a black stem. A bookmark features another ghost design surrounded by geometric shapes in yellow and white.

I started watercolor painting recently, and Halloween is my favorite holiday! What better way to practice than by painting ghosties?! I also enjoy making washi tape pumpkins, so the new Art Toolkit Washi Tape was a perfect fit to combine with the Halloween washi tape I already had.

—Gina, Logistics Assistant

Nakaia Macomber-Millman

Close-up of heart stamp.

A cup of tea, a heart, and (on its side) saccharina anchored to a stone.

This year, any expression of creativity has felt like a win for the soul, in the way that any venture into nature felt like a win for the body and mind. I think of a filled sketchbook, arranged bouquets from summer through fall, madrona berries strung together, and pies baked with apples from the tree outside my home. Little things. A recent (and new!) thing was a set of four stamps that I carved from a pink eraser, using shoe glue to adhere the small rubber shapes to blocks of wood as a present for my friend’s birthday.

—Nakaia, Marketing Manager

Michael Hoover

A split landscape illustration featuring a serene lake scene with tall pine trees on the left and a rocky desert landscape with cacti on the right, showcasing mountains in the background.

I have never been much of a painter, but I have always enjoyed having a creative outlet. When I joined Art Toolkit and started playing with my palette, I was surprised by how much I loved watercolor! It is such a forgiving medium, and I love exploring different techniques and tools.

—Michael, Logistics Manager

Darin Reid

A wooden display features a sign for the "Folio Explore Set," describing its contents, including a gold Folio Palette, Medium Aquash Water Brush, Hahnemühle Large Travel Booklets (2-pack), and a Triad Template. A colorful palette with paint squares is also visible in the background. — Information about featured supplies is printed on magnetic paper.

Colorful water-soluble pencils arranged in glasses on a shelf. A sign describes the product as Caran d’Ache Supracolor Water-Soluble Pencils, highlighting their strong, smooth lead and ideal uses for various artistic techniques. — Plywood/magnet signs can stand in two orientations.

I’ve had a few creative wins this year, from bringing music and photography back into my life in a more intentional way to helping design some exciting new Art Toolkit products (keep an eye on our newsletter!).

Right now, I’m in the midst of a fun sign-making project as we expand our retail store in downtown Port Townsend. We’re introducing new signs to highlight featured supplies. I love designing within a system, and I’ve been excited to try out a new color key to help customers find their way through our shop and hopefully make some interesting discoveries along the way! I made these from plywood left over from the cabinets I built in our warehouse, and each features an adhesive-backed magnet on the front so retail staff can quickly swap out new signs.

—Darin, Co-Founder and Operations Director

Justin Lesser

A collection of fabric swatches, two pairs of pants, playing cards, and various prints laid out on a wooden surface. The items include denim jeans with a patch, ochre-colored and green pants, multiple patterned fabric pieces, and art cards featuring people and designs.

Several colorful and textured envelopes and packages are arranged on a wooden surface. They include a faded brown envelope, three yellow envelopes with different patterns, a blue and white envelope featuring abstract shapes, and a package with a grid pattern. A sheet of cassette tapes is also visible at the bottom.

My creative wins this year are experimenting with a bunch of new media. I got into visible mending and dying to customize some clothes: the green and orange pants are dyed with rit dye. I’ve also been diving into cyanotype and bookbinding, and have been making little journals/notebooks. I’m looking forward to more experimentation with all of these next year, and to combining a few of them as well.

—Justin, Production Coordinator

Robbie Clay

A sketchbook page displaying various colorful drawings. The left side features a figure standing with hands on hips, a girl in a dress, and another figure with a hat. The right side showcases a large head with exaggerated facial features, a girl in a dress, and a bowl surrounded by various objects. Dates at the top indicate October 3rd and 4th.

A handwritten journal page featuring sketches of two people hugging, a figure with curly hair, and a monstrous character. There are notes about feelings, a travel diary entry, and thoughts on rest. The date 9/24 and 9/25 are noted at the top.

My creative win for the year has been not to self-judge my work, taking tips from Make Sneaky Art. These sketches are of me and my granddaughter H, and a random “sneak!”

—Robbie, Remote Production Assistant

Isaac Perk

A cream-colored tote bag featuring a whimsical, abstract design with a green head, a light blue eye, and a red coral-like shape. The design is created with stitched fabric pieces, giving it a textured appearance.

After an extensive investigation of various fabric interfacing options, I determined a solution with the correct weight and adhesive to significantly improve a turned-edge textile appliqué process I’ve been developing. While hidden in the final product, the interfacing provides structure, dramatically increases the ease with which edges can be worked, and limits the fabric’s transparency, ensuring the piece’s color is uniform. The heat-sensitive adhesive on the interfacing, which is present only on one side, allows for precision edge-turning before stitching and greatly reduces the need for aerosol spray adhesive or cumbersome homemade solutions. It’s the little things.

—Isaac, Remote Production Assistant

Chelsea Heron

A colorful illustrated panorama depicting a nature scene, featuring trees, a campfire, mountains, and various outdoor elements. The top left corner displays text about the "Oette Triangle," while the bottom right corner features notes and sketches about "Mazama" from October 2015. The overall design has a hand-drawn, whimsical style. — Chelsea’s ZigZag Books from the Ozette Triangle and Mazama in North Cascades National Park. Read more about Chelsea’s supplies here.

My creative win for 2025 was taking Mini ZigZag Books with me on a couple of trips and actually filling them! This might be my new favorite way to capture highlights from my outdoor adventures and getaways. A bonus win for me is having the courage to share what I captured and created! Forever a student in this life, I am always reminding myself to release perfection and embrace my ever-changing creative process.

—Chelsea, Office Manager

Cheers to a Year of Creating!

What were some of your creative wins this year? We love to see the art that you make, as well as hear your reflections on creative growth. Be sure to tag us on Instagram, or reach out directly by email.

We hope that our creative wins inspire you to reflect on the variety of ways we practice our creativity and the joy of sharing those practices with others. Best wishes for 2026!