Sara Nguyen

Helping Sassy Solopreneurs Reach more people and get more clients

How to use Canva – A step by step Canva tutorial for beginners

Looking for a Canva tutorial to show you step-by-step how to create beautiful graphics with ease? In this video, I’m going to show you how to use Canva. So you can quickly and easily design your own social media images, presentations, flyers, invitations, and more. Stay tuned!


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Video Transcript

Hi, I’m Sara Nguyen your online marketing strategist helping you grow your business using social media with ease. If you’re new to this channel, consider subscribing for all of the latest product reviews, social media marketing tips, and training. At any time during this video make sure you check out the description for links to all of the resources mentioned in this video.

Canva is a remarkable design tool that allows you to create stunning images with ease. Even if you don’t have any graphic design experience at all. I’m going to walk you through how to navigate Canva, the free version to start designing your beautiful images.

If you’re looking for training on how to use the paid version of Canva, Canva for work. I’ve created a video for that too, check out the description for the link and to jump to the specific training sections.

Let’s go over to my computer.

Now to start using canva, you’ll need a Canva account. So from canva.com, you can sign up using your Facebook account, your Google account, or you can sign up using your email address.

Once you’ve done that and followed the prompt, you can come back to canva and login in the top right-hand corner. Here using your username and email and password or login clicking on the green button with your Facebook or your Google account.

I’m going to log in with my Facebook account.

This then takes me to Canva. In the top section where it says to create a design, you’ll see all of these templates for different graphics that you can create and underneath these are the images that I’ve created in the past.

Yours will be empty until you have some designs saved.

So let’s start with creating a social media graphic.

We’re going to start by clicking on the more button, or you can also click on the create a design button.

This takes you to the section in Canva where you can choose the different design types.

You can see here there are social media posts and we have twitter social graphics, Pinterest graphics, Facebook’s, Tumblr, and Instagram.

These are different templates that can be have created and sized for you for these specific social media platforms.

If you keep scrolling, you’ll see documents.

So we have the US letter size as well as the International A4 size.

If you wanted to create different documents and presentations, we have ebook templates and book covers as well as posters, flyers, brochures, social media covers, invitations for events, and ads as well.

So there is a large array of templates and already sized designs for you.

The other alternative that you can do is you can use custom dimensions.

On the top right-hand corner here. With this, you can type in width and the high in pixels or in millimetres or inches of an image that you want to design.

This is something that you would use if you don’t want to go ahead and use canvas templates, but I’m going to show you how to start usingtheir templates to create quick, beautiful designs.

So let’s have a look at creating a Facebook post.

You really can apply this to any of the social media graphics in canvas section here.

So I’m going to click on Facebook posts, and this opens up the editor section where I can start to make the magic happen.

Now if we have a look at the left-hand side here there are some tabs.

We have layouts elements text background and uploads. I’m going to go through what all of these are and how you can use them with layouts.

We have designed, Kemba has provided all designers in Canvas marketplace have provided.

You can see as I hover over some of these designs, it has a little dollar sign on it.

This means that it has a paid element on the actual design. So I’ve clicked on this design, and you can see that there’s this image and it can buy watermarks on it.

This means that this component is a paid feature. So if I wanted to use this design and this particular image, I would have to pay for it.

This happens when I go to download the image. I’m going to choose it’s a JPEG.

When I click download canvas, it will then ask me to put in my credit card details because there’s this paid component on it. If I didn’t want to pay for it there are two options, I could choose a free design, or I can delete this paid element.

So to delete this paid element, I would click on it go on the right-hand side, click delete image, and now you can see that that in that paid image is no longer there and I can upload my image.

I’ll show you how to do that in a moment, but you’ll see. Now when I go to download this particular image design canva don’t ask me to put my credit card details in anymore. It’s because I’ve removed the component of the design that’s a paid version.

Then they will just start automatically downloading as you see there.

So that is a paid design, and all of the paid designs have the little dollar sign icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the design, and this is relevant whether you’re doing a social media pose or whether you’re creating an invitation.

All of the canva layouts will be marked as either paid with paid elements on them or if we keep scrolling, we’ll be able to find some free versions like here.

It says free, so this means that the design doesn’t have any paid elements on it. So you can choose the paid versions and remove the paid elements on them for them to be free or you can just use a free layout.

It’s really up to you so to choose a layout. It’s extremely easy! It’s a matter of clicking on the design and as you saw before I have this design here.

You can choose to replace current designs that you have by clicking on replace, or if you’re playing around with different layouts in the bottom, you’ll see it says at a new page.

This group will create another blank template.

So you can add another design, and you can play between the different layouts and see which one you like best, and then you can either keep them or on the right-hand side here you can delete it

So it gives you options when you’re designing to play with different layouts, and you don’t have to necessarily commit to one or the other.

I’ve added two free designs. I’m going to add another page, and this will be a paid design and I’m going to show you how to change this image, and I’m going to add one more.

This will be a blank one, and I’ll show you how to freestyle a design and create something without having to use canvas layouts if you didn’t want to.

So when we go back to the design, and we want to change a component whether it’s the text or the colours in this back section, you simply click on the section that you want to edit.

So let’s say I want to change the text. I would click on this. I would write some text, and that will replace the text. I can highlight this text and on the top section here.

I can change the font type to a different style there are lots of fonts for you to choose from the free range. There should be something here that will work for what you need.

So you just simply select the font that you like, and on the right-hand side as you see in the design it will automatically change.

You can change the font size. You can change the font colour. You can use the document colours, or you can click on this plus button, and this gives you access to change the colour to be whatever colour in the colour wheel that you desire.

You have other options such as whether you want to Center a line, lift the line, or right align the text at bullet points or you can change the spacing, and the spacing allows you to increase or decrease the text.

I guess horizontally or the line height if there’s text above or below it so changing the text is as easy as clicking on the text that you want to change and then typing the text that you want to replace it with. Then highlight the text and clicking on any of the menu items here to change the font the size the colour.

Some of the styling things that you can do here to change the background elements.

When I click on it, you’ll see in the top left-hand corner changes once again depending on the element that I’m changing.

I can choose different colors for this based on what I want once again I’m able to choose from the document colors, or if I click on the plus sign, it gives me access to the entire color wheel and I can then go ahead and replace these particular colors with colors that work better for what I’m looking to do.

It’s as easy as that it’s clicking on the element and then choosing the color from the colour wheel.

So let’s go over to another one. Now, this is another free one. So let’s have a look here as you can see there are different elements that can be have added on this design.

Let’s say I don’t want this to be the bottles here.

So I’m going to click on the element that I don’t want to be included in the design. I’m going to go to the top right-hand corner and as you saw that happened quickly.

I click on the little bin button, and it deletes that particular element from the actual design. So you’re not stuck with components that you don’t like.

Now I’m going to go and add something else here because I’ve taken out an element of it.

So on the left-hand side, I click on elements and here’s a bunch of stuff that canva have that is really cool.

You can choose to add shapes, and you click on the shape icon there are all of these components that you add to the actual image.

Once again there are free ones, and there are paid ones. If you want to use the paid one you can add it and then you will need to enter your credit card details to be able to use the paid feature.

However, there are so many elements that are free. I don’t necessarily think that you will need it there’s going to be something here that will work for what you need. So it’s a matter of either scrolling, or you can start typing what you want.

So let’s say I’m going to add another bottle.

So I search for a bottle in that search bar there, and I click enter, and all of the elements that have the keyword bottle in it will appear.

Once again they’re labelled free or if it’s a paid one. You’ll see that it has the price and the dollar sign there.

So I’m going to add this free icon. I clicked on it, and then canva added it to my active canvas, and then I can drag it to be where I want it to be. If I pull on the right-hand corner or any of the corners, it will resize it keeping that aspect ratio in place.

So that’s another cool feature. So it’s not all out of whack, and then I can move it wherever on the canvas that I want to. as you see here, these are the specific colours that it came with in the top corner. Here I can change it to be whatever colours that I like.

So there’s lots of flexibility in being able to remove the elements if you don’t like them and add new ones.

There are so many elements to choose from and then to customize them as well. So this was adding different shapes.

I can also add lines if they’re relevant to what I need to do. I click on the lines button, and there are all these different line designs that I can also add to my design by just clicking on them and locating them somewhere on the design

The other thing that I like to add from time to time is an illustration.

So this is pretty cool. I like illustrations because they just add a little bit of jazz. So there are free ones and paid ones, and it just spices up the image a little bit more.

You simply click on it, resize it, you can rotate them, and then just place them somewhere on your actual design.

If you’ve added something and you think mmm that looks a bit weird and you don’t like it.

That’s okay too. You simply click on it once again, and that little delete button here takes it away as if it never even happened.

So adding elements and design components is as easy as clicking on the elements section here and choosing what component you want to add.

Whether it’s shaped, lines, illustrations, icons, charts, Canva has a massive library of things that you can use.

They’ve also got an amazing stock image library as well. If you click on free photos, you’ll see all of these beautiful images that you can use for free to help you create these beautiful images.

Now I’m going to show you how to upload your images.

So I’ve scrolled to the next design here and as you can see this is a paid image because it has the canvas watermarks on it.

So I’m going to go ahead and delete this one because I don’t think that this is the right image for what I want to use. I want to use something else. I’m going to click delete to the image, and that’s gone and now to upload my image.

I can choose from in the elements section. Let’s get rid of this bottle in the elements section. I can click on the free photos, and I can choose to look for people images here that are relevant. Let’s have a look-see. So I can either choose something here and place it into the section here, and then I click tick to accept it. so that’s one option choosing the free options.

If I don’t like that as always, I can delete the image.

Otherwise, I can upload my images, so I’m going to go to uploads here then upload your images and let’s go to my desktop. I’m going to add this image of pandas because I can. Canva will upload images, and it will keep the images in your upload section. So you can use them again. You don’t need to upload the image every time you use it. You have this library of images that you can come back up and use just by clicking on them like that.

So let’s have a look at how you’re going it’s almost there you can see here it’s uploading and now it’s done. So once it’s done I click on it, then I drag it into the section, and like that, I have uploaded and placed my image.

Other things that you can do with your images is if I click on this just once you’ll see in the top corner here I can add filters to edit the image. So either choosing from canvas own filters I can scroll across the top here that’s made a different colour or I can click on the scales here and change the image filters according to the colour scheme that I like.

I could crop the image if I wanted it to be bigger or a different size. I have a crop option. I can flip it if I wanted to horizontally and vertically and with the space seen what does the spacing, one do that just brings the image in or out depending on the layout of the image.

The other thing that you can do with your image if you click on it and if you have a look on the right-hand side is that you can arrange it.

So this is the option that allows you to move it forward or back allowing you to move things around on your canvas putting them before or behind certain elements and you can also add a link to the image to an external URL by putting the link here and clicking apply.

That will create a hyperlink on your design.

Now I’m going to show you how to freestyle your canva design. so here’s a blank canvas and I’m going to show you how to add images add text add images starting from a blank slate.

So I’ve already uploaded a bunch of images here.

So I’m going to start by adding this background. So this is an image that I’ve uploaded earlier, and I’m going to use this as my entire backgrounds. Uploaded it, clicked it, to add it, and I’m going to resize it by just dragging it.  That builds my entire canvas.

Now I’d like to add some text. so I’m going to click on the text section here, and I have options of either adding text and then choosing a font, or I can select some of the canvas pre-designs here. So I am going to click on this one here. So I’m going to change the text.

So replace that and delete this other text that I don’t want or need to up here. I’m going to add some extra text just to show you how to do it. So I’m going to click on add a subheading it’s placed it there.

I’m going to drag it underneath it then I’m going to stretch it just so that it’s all on one line and I move it there it’s a little bit hard to read.

So I’m going to go to the elements section, and I’m going to have a look at different shapes that I can add so that I can have it stand out a little bit more. So I think I may do a circle keep it a little bit easy and I’m going to arrange it to send it back.

So I can have the font appear in the front, and now I’m going to change the colour because it’s nice and it’s easy to read now, but it’s a little bit black.

So I’m going to click on the element click on the colour section, and I think it’s going to be a blue.

No, I’m still not feeling it. So I’m going to click on the plus button, and now we’re talking now this is exciting now. I like that so I’ve just chosen a colour there and I click off it and I quite like that.

Now, how do you get the design off canvas so that you can upload it to Facebook or to whichever social media platform.

You click on the download button here, and you can choose to download the image as a JPEG a PNG or a PDF in standard or print version. I’m going to go with JPEG for this demonstration.

You can choose to download all the images as you see here because there are multiple images on this canvas it will save all of them as a zip file, or I can just choose the certain canvas that I want. So I just want this last one which is number 4, and I’ll click download and canvas doing its thing, and in a couple of seconds, it will enable me to download it if it doesn’t automatically download.

Now that’s downloaded when I click on it here’s my beautiful image that I just created with this design. If I click on the title here, I can name it something.

So I’m going to call it Facebook post-demo, and this will name the image.

So that when you see it in your save image section it has a meaningful name. I’m going to click on the canvas icon this takes me back to my dashboard which has all of the images that I’ve created.

So I can go back to the image and edit it and pretty much use them as a template anytime I want.

So, for example, this Pinterest analytics one is a YouTube thumbnail. So I use this as a thumbnail for my Pinterest tutorials, and if I click on this particular image, I can go back to it. I can update it and use the same design four different videos if it’s relevant.

So let’s say this is one on how to pin

I’ve got the same layout I just changed the text. It saves me a lot of time. I don’t have to build everything from scratch again, and then I simply save it and then I can download it once again. So that’s a cool feature of doing designs in canvas that you can set it up essentially as a template.

So you can go in quickly change the text to make that same image relevant for the next piece of work that you’re doing.

Another thing that I really love about Canva which is a new addition that they’ve just added recently is that if you’re creating designs or posters or business cards or-or anything print related if you click on the order prints option here. You can have the design that you created in canvas arrange to be printed and delivered to you or from the one place.

So you don’t need to download the design send it to your printer and then get them to send it to you-you can do it all from here and it can give you the options and the pricing. Which is really cool it’s just this one-stop solution to do your designs and arrange your print jobs all in the one place.

So there you have it a step-by-step guide of how to use Canva to create beautiful images for your business.

If you found this video useful give me a thumbs up and don’t forget to subscribe to my channel.

If you’re looking for more ways to grow your business using social media make sure you grab a copy of my social media checklist.

It’s a super simple guide to help you get up and running on the major social media networks so you can start leveraging the power of social to get more customers and generate more sales with ease.

To get your hands on it simply click on the link in the description below and thanks for watching!

Get your free Social Media Checklist: http://saranguyenonline.com/special/social-media-checklist/

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Simone says

    Hey Sara,
    thank you for creating so much valuable content, I already got some amazing tips out of it. Also, I wanted to ask you, if you designed your “social media checklist” pdf with canvas or was it done with powerpoint / keynote. It looks great and of course has great content.

    Best wishes, Simone

    Reply

    • Sara Nguyen says

      Hey Simone,

      I created the social media checklist using a Keynote template that I found on Creativemarket.com
      I also used Canva to help design some of the elements for the template 🙂

      Hope that helps.
      Sara

      Reply

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