Creating Visual Magic on Canva

When I started working in the digital space, what I enjoyed doing most was the experiment of new apps and tools that I could use for my business. The web has an audience with a visual culture. An awesome graphics always catches the most attention and that makes it so important for businesses -- to create amazing graphics that can steal away interest. Greater interest brings high traffic that can translate to greater profit. But hiring a graphics artist is too expensive if you are on a shoestring budget running your online business. For people like me... we are always on a hunt for the good stuff that are free. But make no mistake because not all free things are really free. Sometimes, free offers can waste your time, too!

Welcome to Canva! 

What is Canva?

Canva is a web tool that allows you to easily and quickly create beautiful designs. It has a user friendly interface, perfect for those who never enjoyed the complicated tools in photoshop! I love the drag and drop feature -- this saves me so much time and money! 

How Can I Make FREE Awesome Designs For My Business?

This tool is very useful for small businesses. I also use this tool for my clients because we can easily collaborate on a project and the results were really amazing! 

You can design social media graphics -- I use Canva to create my image posts all the time because I need to consistently produce engaging content. You can create your graphics in different dimensions to exactly fit where you intend to use it -- Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. You can choose to use the pre-sized templates for your social media headers and images or you can customize a project. But Canva is not limited to designing images for the web and social media. You can create documents, presentations, invitations and marketing materials, too! 

The best part is that you can create unlimited designs for FREE. Yes, that’s right! Creating designs on Canva is free and you can download your work without any watermark. You can even add your own logo to your designs. Canva offers a roster of beautiful layouts, free. You can use them or you can find inspiration in them to create your own original design. The only time that you will spend on Canva is if and when you choose to use their premium images for only $1. But if you are not willing to shell out cash, then that’s no problem! You can still select from heaps of free images and icons made available in this platform, or you can always upload your own. 

What makes it even better for business is that Canva continues to innovate and add new functionalities. For example, the newest in Canva are the trifold brochure, etsy cover photo, and etsy shop icon.

Canva On Ipad and Iphone

You can use Canva on Ipad and just recently, they introduced Canva on Iphone. In the email I received from Melanie, she mentioned that ‘it makes it even easier to create and share posts for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest, no matter where you are.’ So, if you are someone always on the go, this is something you might want to explore. You can download Canva for Iphone here.

6 Easy To Follow Steps Using Canva For Business

I use Canva mostly to create and publish engaging visuals on social media. Funny and informative content can quickly go viral. Let me show you 6 easy to follow steps on using Canva for business, creating a header for Facebook. You can watch the video tut or you can scroll ahead for the steps in text.

STEP 1. Select by clicking pre-sized Facebook Post template with 940px x 788px but I always use the Social Media template which is 800px x 800px. I guess I like it bigger.

STEP 2. You will be redirected to a blank canvas.where you can play magic! You can start creating your original layout here, or you can select from the free templates from the left. On this screen, you will find the following functions that you can navigate--

Image Credit: Small Biz Trends

1. Search tab – Find photos, icons, etc that you can use both free and premium.
2. Layouts tab – There are ready-made templates that you can simply select and download right away. This one’s a great time-saver if you are someone who needs to work at a quick pace. Templates are updated every so often especially on holidays offering holiday greetings and season related layouts.
3. Text tab – Select from a long list of awesome fonts! Or, you can use the preformatted text styles in images like speech balloons.
4. Background tab – You can choose to start from scratch for your background or you can use different background colours and images that you will find in this section. You have the option to use free or premium background.
5. Uploads tab – This is one of the best things about Canva. It gives you the flexibility to experiment and explore unlimited creativity, allowing you the freedom to incorporate your own images and logos into your design. You simply upload and add your own element.
6. Zoom Control – Shrink or enlarge your project using the zoom control. It’s a useful function. I usually zoom out when I need to crop oversized images and zoom in when I need to add small elements in the design.
7. Search form – When you need to search for specific images or icons, use the search form for a quick look of what’s readily available for you to use. For example, you need an image of fireworks then just type in the keyword ‘fireworks’ and your search will show all images and icons of different fireworks.
8. Canvas – This is the playground where you create your masterpiece.
9. Add a new page – If you need multiple pages, the add a new page is a really useful function.
10. Page controls – This function allows you to navigate between pages. It allows you to copy, delete and choose to swap places of each page bringing the page up or down. This function also lets you know which page you are on.
11. Design Name – You can custom name your design in this section for easy and quick identification when you have created multiple designs;
12. Share button – Quickly share your design via email for collaboration or directly on social media.
13. Download button – When you finished your design, you can now begin the download. This is the button that allows you to download your image. You can select the file type you would like such as --
• jgp for web
• .png for high res image
• .pdf standard and 
• .pdf for print
• If you created more than 1 page, you can select to download all or only pages in range. Maybe, you have not finished the entire project and you would like to download what you have completed. Then, what you do is to simply click Options just below the box with text ‘PDF: for print’. You will find (2) buttons for options --
1. All Pages button (to download everything) and 
2. Pages in Range button. 
• Choose Pages in Range button then enter only the pages you want to download.
14. Make Public button – If you want Canva to display your design in the Canva “stream” you can select to make your design public. But you always have the option not to share your designs publicly.
15. Help tab – Support is only a click away with a searchable knowledge base that you can access and use while still working on your design.

STEP 3. Add elements into your blank project. You can now start adding texts, images, icons, charts, and more. Let your creative flair begin to experiment and explore the elements and placements. You may even upload your own images and logo.

STEP 4. When you have finished adding elements, you can make your final adjustments to your project until you are fully satisfied of the aesthetic feel of your masterpiece.

STEP 5. It’s time to download when you feel there is nothing more you’d like to change in your project. Simply click the Download box located in the upper right section of your screen. Refer to #16 in Step 2 for a detailed how to.

STEP 6. Once you completed your download and saved your image in your drive, all you need to do now is upload your graphics and you’re done!

Disclaimer: I do not earn from Canva for this post. If you found this useful, please pay it forward so this post may also help others... it will also help me a lot if you can share this post with your friends on social media. Thanks heaps!

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I enjoy working on Canva! If you need help with your social media graphics, my team and I am always ready to help. Shoot me an email!