Okay who here is a bit scared of Canva or you’ve played around a bit with it just to end up completely confused? Well, my friend take a deep breath, grab a drink, maybe a pen a paper and let me be your guide as we dive into my tips and some tricks for canva. At the end of this you’ll feel like a pro and be ready to give your blog and social media accounts the look and feel you’ve been longing for! Let’s start ya’ll!
Make an Account
First we need to get you signed up! If you’re already a member of the canva community scroll down to the next section, I’ll be there in a minute.
For all my first-timers, let’s get you set up. Head on over to canva.com and click on the LOGIN button up top. Create your username and password (Make sure you write these down and keep them in a safe place)
Let’s Design
The Homepage
Now we are all signed up and on the HOME page. This is the place you can always return to see YOUR DESIGNS and RECOMMENDATIONS. Canva has thousands of different templates for all your design needs, so if you’re not feeling too creative you can use one of theirs and just update your own content
Your Workspace
Lets go over what you can find in your designing workspace.
TEMPLATES: Here once again you can thousands of pre-made templates that you can work off of and update with your own content. It’s also a great way to get some inspiration on what you to create.
UPLOADS + PHOTOS: In the UPLOAD section, this is where you can add your own photos to use in your designs. The PHOTO section houses Canvas photos that you can use as well. If any photos have a CROWN on them, this means they are apart of the premium account and you will have to pay for them, so be mindful if you don’t a have a premium account.
ELEMENTS: This is one of my favorite features of Canva! This is where you can find a graphic of almost everything you can imagine. Need a Santa laughing for a shirt you’re designing? Or how about some fitness icons for your fitness blog? They even just released moving graphics for your Instagram posts.
TEXT: Something super cool about the text section is once again there are pre-themed font combinations for you to use. Canva is really all about making it easy for YOU and this features shows just that. *If you have a premium account you can upload your own fonts.*
So now that we know the main workspace areas, let’s make a design together. Today we will design a Pinterest pin highlighting our new blog post.
Pinterest Pin
On the home page search bar, type in “Pinterest pin” so we have the correct dimensions. Selecting a blank template, we are ready to start.
- Add BACKGROUND color | For this design, I’m choosing just a pale pink by selecting the work page and up top click on the color box.
2. Next, we are going to add some TEXT. It’s very important that when you choose text that you use fonts that are clean and eligible to read for the user. As you will see I did add a box element behind the category so it pops a little more on the page.
3. Lastly we can add an image to the bottom to highlight what the Pinterest pin is about. I choose a simple flat lay with a woman typing. Remember canva has over thousands of free images to use. *You find frames to put your images in under the element section on the side*
As you can see, there is nothing to be afraid of or stress about when it comes to designing on canva. They have made it super easy for us, so we focus on other things for our businesses than spending hours designing marketing materials. All it takes is a couple of minutes a day playing around with the different elements and you will be a pro in no time.
