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August 5th, 2026

Shop Expansion Party

To celebrate the recent expansion of our retail shop, we held a special party with extended hours on Wednesday at our shop!

By The Art Toolkit Team

A wooden sign on the sidewalk announces a "Shop Expansion Party" with details about new items, treats, and demos. People walk by on a sunny day, with a bicycle parked nearby.

Our Wednesday night Retail Expansion Party was a wonderful celebration of the shop’s newly expanded space. From 4–7pm, the store was full of friends of Art Toolkit, both familiar and new, exploring the fresh layout, browsing the new products, and enjoying shelves that still carried the scent of sawdust.

Three people are chatting inside a cozy store filled with various items and plants. Two women are wearing casual outfits, with one in a brown apron and the other in a denim jacket, while the third person, wearing glasses, stands in front of them, engaged in the conversation. Brightly colored products are displayed on wooden shelves in the background.
Our team welcoming visitors to the shop.
A wooden display shelf filled with various stationery items, including notebooks, pens, and art supplies. The shelf features colorful notebooks, sketchpads, and decorative items, with a warm, inviting ambiance created by soft lighting. Two large windows in the background allow natural light to illuminate the scene.
A freshened up street-facing window.
A lively indoor bookstore or community space filled with people of various ages browsing books and engaging in conversation. A table in the foreground displays snacks, while shelves filled with books line the walls. Decorative lights and greenery add a cozy atmosphere.
There was lively music and chatter and light refreshments.

Guests mingled, chatted, and tried out the hands-on demo stations, which remain a favorite part of the shop experience. Several people shared how much they appreciated the redesigned flow of the space, and it was a delight to see the shop feel so lively and welcoming.

A person with shoulder-length hair browses paint tubes organized on shelves in an art supply store. The shelves display a variety of colors from different brands.
Browsing our expanded range of Daniel Smith watercolors in a new display!
A wooden table displays art supplies, including a chalkboard sign that says "Feeling Inspired? Take a Sample Palette," colorful paint tubes, and watercolor papers. Flowers in a vase are visible in the background.
Demo ArtGraf Water-Soluble Graphite at our checkout counter.

One especially memorable moment was watching people sit down to put marker to paper for Brunetti-style self-portraits. The process is simple:

  1. Draw a big ol’ circle for a head.

  2. Add a little, soft triangle body.

  3. Give it noodle arms and legs.

  4. Finish with identifying details, like glasses, hair, or anything that makes the portrait feel like you.

Together, the portraits became a kind of limited guest book: a playful record of the people who helped us celebrate.

A child and an adult are sitting at a table covered with brown paper, engaged in drawing. The table has various markers and a vase of white flowers. The child is coloring with crayons while the adult is drawing. Several completed drawings are scattered on the table.
The draw-your-own-portrait table was a popular spot.
A table covered with brown paper displays jars of colorful markers and small drawing cards. A hand holds a black marker, drawing a stick figure with a big head and a crown on a card. Instructions for drawing are visible in the background.
Four steps to drawing your own Brunetti-style portrait!

Thank you to everyone who came, participated, and shared in the excitement of this new chapter for the Art Toolkit Retail Shop. Stay tuned as we continue bringing in even more goodies for the shop, including items exclusive to our space in Port Townsend!

A group of nine people stands behind a wooden counter filled with various colorful products. They are smiling and posing together, with some wearing aprons. The background features shelves stocked with items and plants.
Our team gathered behind the new retail counter.

Learn about upcoming online and in-person Art Toolkit events, and catch up on past events, here!

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