Danielle Kell
Danielle Kell was a stay-at-home mom who was looking for a way to work— sort of. Still wanting to dedicate her time to being a mom, she started searching for something that was meaningful, flexible and positive.
It started when a friend sent Kell a photo of a molded crayon.
“I had been telling her, ‘I wish I had an Etsy business like you,’” Kell said. “’You find a way to make money, yet you are also a stay-at-home mom.’ And I admired that so much.”
When Kell saw the crayon art she knew instantly that was something she could get behind. She went to Target the next day, and it took off from there. Crayon creation fit the mold of her life.
Cosmic Crayon launched in September 2019. The first molds she purchased were letters. She began making marbled names and then eventually branched out to other shapes, like dinosaurs, rockets and teddy bears.
Her mom had moved to the area from where Kell had grown up in Bermuda, so for the first time Kell and her husband had extra support. The Etsy shop fits her life because she wants to still be a stay-at-home mom for her preschooler and 6th grader.
“This was the first time I was able to say, ‘I want to try to sink my teeth into something.’”
With her family in a place where she could contribute financially, she started searching for an opportunity.
“I felt that I wanted something for me,” she said.
When she first started, business was slow, so she continued to research and figure out the platform. It was around Halloween when she started seeing more orders, and with each one she and her kids would happy dance.
Even with her Etsy business fitting around her job as a mom, working from home has come with its challenges. During the pandemic especially, everyone is at home and it becomes more difficult to find spare moments.
“You know, my son learned how to play better by himself, and I learned better how to set him up with something,” Kell said. “My husband helps more because I need him more. It’s all positive.”
She spends a lot of late nights working, and she works during those stolen moments throughout the day. She loves the moment of being able to pop the crayon out of the mold and see how it melted.
“You never know how the crayon is going to melt,” Kell said.
But she is always thinking about the child who will be receiving the crayons. She wants each side of the crayon to be a new color.
While she finds inspiration for her products and designs everywhere in the community, her children have been the basis of some of her best-selling lines.
Her son was always coloring the Avengers, so Kell created a crayon series where each crayon is themed for a different superhero.
The superhero line did really well, as did the fruit basket line, which her daughter inspired. Her daughter is also a big supporter of keeping yellow in Kell’s rainbows, a color that is often left out of crayon rainbows because there is usually only one yellow crayon per box.
“She called me out on that,” Kell said, laughing.
While she is doing this business to be creative, at the end of the day she says she is doing it for her kids.
“Even if it has nothing to do with them, every crayon is inspired by them,” Kell said. “I did this for them. I want this for me, but it is so great for them to see that as a mommy that I have something to be proud of and a little something to work on now and then.”
Her creations make the perfect gift for any creative child. All names are custom and there is a wide variety of shapes available as well on her Etsy site.
While she does typically create an order within a couple of days of purchase, as she gets closer to the holidays that timeframe will change. She suggests ordering early if looking for holiday gifts.
To see crayons and order, go to Kell's Etsy site at etsy.com/shop/cosmiccrayoncompany.
