Transforming the Template:

In this tutorial we will transform our template into another completely different image.  While the easiest way is likely to just start from scratch, this tutorial will help you master the edit capabilities within Canva.  With these skills, you can create just about any design or graphic you can image.  In this tutorial you will change the background image, change the font, the font size, the font color, and the font effects.  We will also delete a few elements, as well as move our font around on the work area.

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This is what our template looks like after completing the Canva Basics tutorial.  If you are starting with the original template (the one that is titled “Guarding Your Heart”) you should still be able to follow along with this tutorial.

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We’re going all in quickly on this tutorial to change the whole look.  To do so, we are going to remove the background heart image.  Click the image and a colored box should surround the entire work area.  Now, click the trash can icon, or click delete on your keyboard, or right click on your mouse and choose delete.

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This looks pretty bad, so we need a new background image.  To upload a new file click “Uploads” on the far left side of the screen, then click “Upload files”

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Next, you navigate on your hard drive to find the image you will be uploading.  One note:  the perfect size image is 1920 x 1080 pixels.  However, other image sizes can still work, but part of the image may be cut off.  Avoid using smaller images because the stretch will make the background pixelated.  There are several stock image places to choose images online, many of them free services.  For our purposes, we will be uploading a drawing of a piano.  You can download that image with this link to follow along. After you download the image to your computer, you will then proceed back into Canva, and click the “Upload files” button.  The upload will then appear in the bin area to the left under images.

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Next, drag that image onto the work area.  If it doesn’t snap into place, you may need to drag the corners and sides to make it fit.  If for some reason it is hiding the text, right click the image, choose “Layer”, then choose “Send to back”.  This will make sure the image is your background layer.

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Next we will change the text on the top line of the image.  We are going to title this new Sermon Series “The Song of the Soul”.  So, highlight the top text making the colored box appear around it.  Select the text and type “the song of the”.

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After typing the new text, this looks like a big jumbled mess.  There are a few ways to handle this.  You could make the font size smaller, but it appears to be a good size for this image.  The second option is to make the text box bigger to give the text more space.  Click on the text to make the colored box appear.  Then, use the little white tab on the sides of the text box to make it bigger.

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Your text should all be on the same line now. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look perfect, because we are coming back to this later.

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Now, we are going to change the bottom text.  Click on the text box to make the colored box appear.  Then, select the text and type in the word “SOUL”.

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This isn’t looking great at this point, but we’re just getting the correct words for now.  The design magic is only a few steps away.  We will leave it looking like this for now.

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This series logo doesn’t really need the bottom text box or text.  You could leave it, but for our purposes we are going to delete both the bottom text and the text box.  Highlight each element (the text and the box).  You can delete by using the trash can icon that appears, or the delete key on your keyboard, or by right clicking the mouse and choosing delete.  One note:  If another layer is selecting when you try and choose these two layer, you can move that layer out of the way, and then you should be able to access the layer.  

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After you’ve deleted the text, now delete the text box.  Once again, you need that colored box around the layer.  If it’s not letting you choose the layer because of another layer, you may need to move that interfering layer.  In this sample the word “SOUL” might be interfering.  If so, get the colored box around that layer and move it out of the way.  You should then be able to delete the text box.  Don’t worry, we are going to move the new logo words around anyway in a later step.

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For the purpose of this tutorial we are going to remove the church logo completely from this design.  You do so by selecting the logo.  After the colored box appears, click the trash can icon, or choose delete on your keyboard, or right click mouse and choose delete.  Side note: this is a good example of needing a good white only version of the logo.  But, for our purposes, we are going to just delete it.

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Now, the magic starts.  We are going to clean up the look of our words.  To do so, click the word Design in the top left corner of the screen.

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Next, click the Styles tab which is the third option on the top.  One note:  You can explore the Templates as well, but that would be better with a whole new document.  Choosing a new template will over ride everything, thus removing our background image.  If you accidentally do this simply use CTRL-Z (Windows) or CMD-Z (Mac) to undo your mistake.  For now, choose the Styles tab.  The “Try it now” option may or may not appear depending on if you’ve used Canva before.  If it does appear, click on it, because that is exactly what we want to do.

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Once again, you could experiment with Combinations or Color palettes, but for our purposes, we are going to focus on just the Font sets.  Go down to the bottom where it says “Font sets” and click “See all”.  If you happen to click a combination accidently, you can use the same undo trick (CTRL-Z or CMD-Z).

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This will bring up the various font sets that are offered.  Font sets are combinations of fonts that have already been preselected that work well together.  

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We are going to choose the font combo of RoxboroughCF, Montserrat, and Sorts Mill Goudy.  Note:  the last font will not actually be used in this project.  If we still had that bottom text box, it would default to this font.  You can always choose different fonts, but the combos that Canva uses work pretty well together.

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Well, this now looks like a train wreck, but we’re about to fix it.  To start there are a couple of issues with the top text.  Issue one is the effects (that white border), and the size of the words in the text box.  You’re version may or may not have the words on two lines depending on the text box size.

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Let’s fix that stroke effect first.  Make sure the top text (The Song of The) is selected with the colored box around it.  Now, go to the top of the screen and choose “Effects”.  Another menu on the side should appear.

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In those effects option choose “None”.  This will remove that stroke effect.  For kicks, you can click on the other options to see what they offer.  But, choose “None” before the next step.  You will next need to stretch the text box if the words are on two lines.  We want them on one line.  Another option is to lower the font size, but for our purposes, we’re going to make the text box larger.

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The bottom text “SOUL” is barely visible and looks out of place.  Select the text by clicking it and making sure the colored box appears.

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If the effects panel isn’t already open click on the word “Effects” at the top of the screen.  This will open our effects options again.  We have two issues with this word.  We have an Outline we don’t need, and a Curve we don’t need.  Under style choose “None”, and under Shape choose “None”.

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You’ve chosen “None” for Style, and “None” for shape.  This gives us a clean looking word.  However, we’ve still got a couple of issues.  The font is too small and too dark.

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Let’s fix color first.  Click the letter “A” at the top of the screen with the rainbow of colors under it.  This will bring up the colors options.  The white font color is sometimes hard to see in the choices, but it’s there.  It’s likely in the Document colors area.  It’s also located under Default colors.  Choose the white font color.  This is already an improvement, but it’s still way too small.  This time we are going to increase our font size.  Select the text, and then navigate to the number that is listed to the right of the font (this is just to the left of the color picker letter “A”).  The font size is currently 87.  Click the plus sign several times to bump it up to 220.  Note: you can also double click the number at the top, and enter the new font size (220 for us), and then hit enter. 

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You could stop now, and this doesn’t look too bad.  However, I really like this image and think it’s needs to be shown.  Also, a designing tip:  You always want contrast in images, especially when displaying text.  There are times when little contrast is used, but not often, especially for a graphic going to be displayed on big screens.  You want the words readable from a distance, and contrast is good.

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To get a better contrast, and show more of our piano image, let’s move the words to the bottom right.  You’ll notice there is a dark spot down there. This provides good contrast.  Also, and this is just a personal preference, alignment seems to work best depending on where the words are.  For example, when our words were in the middle of the screen they were centered.  Now that the are in the bottom right, let’s make both of them be justified to the right side.  This means the “E” in the word “THE” and the “L” in the word “SOUL” are lined up.  It just looks cleaner lined up like that.  Conversely, if we had moved the words to the top left of the screen, we could left justify everything.  That would make the “T” in the word “THE” and the “S” in the word “SOUL” lined up.  

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Although the image already worked, here is another option.  This time, no need to lower the font size of the words “THE SONG OF THE”.  Just make the colored box appear around this text, then pull in from the white corners.  This will shrink the text proportionally.  The goal is to get it the same length as the word “SOUL”, and then placed on top.  I chose this option to further show the piano image, and just personal preference I thought it looked cleaner.  Downside is it might be a little too small for projection, but it should still work.

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If you followed along in the first tutorial you’ve already done these next few steps.  All that is left is saving your image.  Click “Share” in the top right corner, and then choose “Download”.

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We don’t want to save this as a PDF, we want JPG.  So, click the little arrow to the right of the word PDF Standard.

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Congratulations you have made it to the last step.  Just click the “Download” button and choose where you want to save your file.  No need to adjust the size or quality sliders.  Just click download.  I’d suggest starting a new project now and exploring the different options in Canva.  Mess around with the Design tab and choose Templates.  When I choose a template, I look mostly at the style of the template, not the background images, because I know I’ll likely change that anyway.  Have fun!

Basic Edits to the Template:

This tutorial will give the basic steps to convert the template to your own needs.  This will include changing the text, changing the font size, removing generic logo and adding your own.  Downloading the finished product is also covered.  Don’t worry, it’s super easy!

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This is what your screen will look like when you first download the template.

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We’re going to start by changing the top text.  Place your mouse over the word “guarding” and a colored box should appear around the text box.

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To change the text you will need to highlight the current text and replace with your new text.  In this sample we replaced “guarding” with “heart of a”. 

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Next, we will do the same process for the bottom text. Once again, click the area where the bottom text is located and a colored box should appear around the words.

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Highlight the current text to change the words.  In this sample the words have a curve effect on them. After highlighting the text it might appear straight briefly.  No need to worry, it will revert to the curved shape after you type the new text.  In this sample we changed “YOUR HEART” to “SERVANT”.

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Next we will change the subtext at the bottom of the image.  Once again click the words, and the colored box should appear.

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Now, we will change the subtext at the bottom of the image.  You’re likely seeing the pattern by now.  Highlight the current text to change the words.  In this sample we will change “FIGHTING DISTRACTION AND TEMPTATION” to “FOLLOWING THE EXAMPLE OF JESUS”.

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As you can see, you have already changed the image to your own custom sermon series title.  However, we still need to remove or change the generic logo in the bottom right corner.  Click the purple logo and a box should appear around it.  Once the box appears, just click DELETE on your keyboard, or click the trash can icon, or right click the mouse and choose delete.

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You could stop here and have a fully usable graphic.  If so, you can skip down to step 13.  If you’d like to upload your own church logo click on the word “uploads” to the left side of the screen.  As a note, this is how you can also change the background image to give a whole new look.  See the Advanced Tutorial for a better explanation.

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The next step is to upload the image you will be using.  In our sample we uploaded another generic logo.  As a side note, if your church doesn’t have a logo, basic logos can be created within Canva. 

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After your file appears in the image bin on the left, you will need to drag and drop it on your work area.  Depending on the resolution of the image, it might be too large.  If so, click the image to get the colored box.  Use the little white circles in the corners to resize the image.  This will keep the proportions accurate, and the box will remain a square shape.

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This should resize your image proportionally to your liking.  If you need to move the image to any corner, you can click it (colored box appears) and drag it any place on the work area.  For our sample, we will leave it in the bottom right corner.

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We’re almost done, just need to save the image to your computer hard drive.  To do so, click the Share button in the top right corner.  Then, when the pull down menu appears, click the word Download.

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Canva defaults to PDF Standard for downloads.  But, for our use, a JPG image file is what we will choose.  To access the other download options, click the little down arrow just to the right of the PDF standard box.

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This pulls down several options for download, but JPG is going to be the best selection for graphics on the screen. Note:  JPG can also be easily used for other places as well such as weekly bulletin or program, website, social media promo, etc.

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Congratulations you have made it to the last step.  Just click the “Download” button and choose where you want to save your file.  No need to adjust the size or quality sliders.  Just click download. If you’d like to explore more features, check out the Advanced Tutorial (don’t worry it’s not really as hard as it sounds)!