So as a lot of you already know, I’m a social media manager/strategist with a specific focus on Pinterest. Today I am going to be teaching everyone how to use Canva to design pretty Pinterest templates because I know that not everyone has the money to outsource their social media graphics to a designer. Let’s start off by mentioning that I’m not a designer but I make Pinterest templates for my Pinterest clients from time to time so I thought I would show y’all how to easily make Pinterest templates that will attract your ideal audience.
How to Design Pinterest Templates with Canva
What is Canva?
Canva is a free online editing program that helps you create graphics of any kind from social media graphics to email headers to content updates, Canva can do it all.
First things first, you will begin by logging into your Canva account and then selecting the Pinterest graphic option below. If you don’t have a Canva account yet, you can sign up here!
Canva makes it easy so we don’t have to figure out the dimensions of our graphic on our own so just select the Pinterest graphic option and you’ll be taken to a screen with the blank canvas ready to go for you.
First, you will start out by deciding on your fonts and colors. If you already have established brand colors and fonts, then you will just have to input the hex codes for the colors and find the fonts so that they’re already ready in Canva for when it comes time to write your text. If Canva doesn’t have your exact fonts, then you can either purchase Canva for Work (which has a 30-day free trial) or you can use a font that is similar to your brand fonts.
Although I have Photoshop, I have also purchased Canva for Work so that I can upload my own fonts and store my brand colors so that I don’t have to remember each and every hex code when I am making new graphics.
Canva Layouts
So once you have your blank canvas, you have a few options. You can either make your own template from scratch down to the photos or select one of the premade templates on the side if you find something that you like.
As you can see in the above photo, Canva has a variety of premade templates that you can use if you so desire. Some of these templates are free and others are paid but they aren’t super costly if you’re wanting to go the paid route.
If you don’t have any photos that you want to use, then Canva has some free photos which you can use by going to “free photos” under the elements tab in the sidebar.
Let’s start off by making a graphic for a post called “How to Start a Blog for Beginners” using one of Canva’s free photos.
As you can see I just typed in the word “blog” in the search bar and it brought up a variety of images – both free and paid. Once I found one I liked, I just clicked on it and it immediately showed up in my template. To size the photo to fit the dimensions of the graphic, you’ll just drag the corners of the photo to the edges of the graphic.
Now that I’ve fit the photo to the frame, it’s time to add my text. I’m going to show you two ways that you can do your text to help you stand out on the Pinterest feed and both involve using the “shapes” option under the elements tab on the sidebar.
With the first way, you’ll select the filled out square (the first option) and then it will be added to your template. Then you will resize and drag it to the top of your design and then change the colors of the design to match your brand colors which you can see in the photo below.
When you select that option, you’ll be able to change the color of whatever element you’re on whether that is the text or the square overlay. To get the text, you’ll select the text option in the sidebar and all of the available fonts will pop up and then you can select either your brand font and a font that resembles your brand fonts.
Then to get the bottom detail with your website URL, you’ll follow the same steps to get the square shape and then drag it down to the bottom and adjust the size and then change the color. After that you’ll type your URL and fix change the color, and you’ll be good to go.
The second option that you can do is a full overlay. So for this, you will just drag the box to fill the entire screen. Then from there, you’ll select the color you want the overlay to be and then bump down the transparency by selecting the button that you can see in the photo below.
Then once you’ve gotten that all situated, then you can add the text over top.
This is what the final product will end up looking like. Easy to read so that your pins stand out on Pinterest without a problem.
If you’re still struggling to create pretty graphics, you can get 3 free templates by signing up down below.
Your Turn:
Do you have Pinterest templates made yet? If not, do you plan on making some of your own after reading this post? Please feel free to let me know down in the comments.
