For today’s #AtoZChallenge, the letter “C” is for Canva.

#AtoZChallenge is a blogging challenge that takes place in April (except on Sundays). Participants blog every day around a theme of their choosing, in alphabetical order. Throughout the month of April, I’ll share tips, links, and insights I’ve learned in my writing career.

 

The letter “C” is for Canva, a useful online image site.

Canva.com is on online site you can use to create images for your blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest—just about any social media outlet. In addition, you can create cards, posters, EBOOK COVERS, letterheads, infographics, menus, gift certificates—a slew of handy, dandy layouts you’d normally pay someone to create for you. The best part is, it’s FREE.

Canva does have a premium service you can use with groups (up to 50 team members), and gives you unlimited folders to store your work and other services. For me, the FREE version is good enough.

First, go to canva.com and sign up, either with a specific username/password, through Facebook, Google or your email. Then choose a design. Here is an ebook cover I designed for a short story I published in October:

 

Use Canva images, your own or others

The nice thing about Canva is that it has over a million images at your disposal. Some are free. Any others will cost you $1. That’s it. A single dollar will buy you an image of just about anything. (Hint: download a version without your captions and store it on your computer. If you have to tweak a completed image with text, Canva doesn’t recognize you’ve downloaded it previously and will charge you again).

You can upload any image or photo of your own or go to any free image website and upload. (Spoiler: I’ll be talking about where to get free images on the letter “I” day, April 11th).

 

The possibilities are endless

I’ve used Canva created images for blog posts (this one is about plot holes):

 

 

 

And book quotes I’ve posted on Twitter and Pinterest:

 

 

 

In fact, whenever I need a graphic, I turn to Canva. It’s never let me down. The learning curve is short, and the time and money saved is invaluable.

Tomorrow is “D” day. I’ll be discussing a book distribution channel I’ve used in the past.

Until then,

Blessings!

Cheryl

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