When I first started blogging I had no idea what I was doing. I just needed a hobby. As I got more involved in blogging I realized that there are so many ways you could actually spend tons of money on it: website design, courses, social media promotions, graphics, and more. I had no extra money to spend on it, so I tried to DIY everything that I could. And then I came across this amazing thing, and it became my one and only blogging indulgence: Canva for Work.
First, if you’ve never heard of Canva, you’re missing out – even if you’re not a blogger. You can have a free account (which I had for several months before upgrading), and make beautiful images for your blog, invitations, photo collages, you name it. I upgraded to the paid Canva for Work account because it’s amazing. There are so many features offered that make my life incredibly easier. Here are just a few of my favorites:
Upload Your Own Fonts
In a world where consistency is key (blogging), it’s so hard to make images to match your brand if you can’t use the right fonts. Canva has an incredible selection of fonts; however, one of the fonts I use for my brand isn’t one of them. I love that I’m able to upload it and use it for every image. If you’re not a blogger, this is also fun if you found a font online that you liked and wanted to add text to your own photos.
Make Your Own Brand Kit
In addition to uploading your own fonts, you can also design your own brand kit. Basically you select your specific colors, font types and sizes, and Canva makes those selections easily available to you when you design your images. You don’t have to scroll through the giant list of fonts trying to find the one you want; it’s right there at the top. And your colors are also saved for you, so there’s no need to type in that six digit hex code every time you start a new design.
Organize Uploads into Folders
Once you start using Canva more, you might have a ton of your own pictures uploaded. It might look a little messy, or make it difficult for you to find a specific photo that you need. That’s where this comes in handy. You can make folders for your uploads. If you’re writing a step-by-step post that has a lot of pictures, just make a new folder for them so they’ll all be in one place. You also have a folder just for your logos. Now they won’t get lost in the shuffle when you need to find them fast!
Organize Designs into Folders
This is one of their newer features, and I LOVE it! I have so many designs in my account that it’s not even funny. I’ve got featured images of different sizes (because I make two different sized images for each post), headers for my site and all my social media accounts, Instagram posts, and more. Now I can organize them to make finding specific ones a little easier. Now I’ve got folders for site images, featured images, and social media.
Save Templates for Designs
You might notice that the featured images for all of my posts have the same look to them. Thank goodness for Canva for Work. I don’t have to find the right shapes, change colors, and do everything from scratch for every image. I make one design, and save it as a template. Then when I make my featured images, I just select the template, and add a background photo. Major time saver! Then the most time I spend on an image will be adjusting the fonts.
The Canva for Work features are only available on the desktop, but that’s no problem for me since I do most of my blogging work at my desk. It would be a dream if all of these features were available on the app, too, but for now I’m perfectly happy with how things are. When it comes to making images for my blog, Canva for Work really streamlines the process for me and saves me so much time. It’s totally worth the $12.95 a month! I know, my one blogging indulgence is less than $15, and it’s still a big deal to me.
So how about you – are you a DIYer with low/no budget for your blog? What’s your big blogging indulgence? Have you used Canva for Work before? Tell me below in the comments!
PS- No, this isn’t a sponsored post. I just love Canva so much!
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I love Canva! PicMonkey is another one I use all the time along with Trello for organization. Great post!
Thank you! I’ll have to look into Trello – I keep seeing it pop up everywhere!
Love Canva!
– Rachel | http://www.theconfusedmillennial.com
Me too, Rachel! It’s a total lifesaver!
This is actually super helpful, because I use the free version and I often get frustrated that I can’t save templates or resize images. I’m considering getting canvas for work now. Thanks!
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I was skeptical about it at first, because I hate paying for things when I can use it for free. I think you can try it for 30 days free before you get charged, so go for it and see if it’s worth it!
Canva is my go-to for all graphic design! It’s easy to use and the graphics always come out exactly how I want them.
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Exactly!
How much does this version cost? I’ve used the free Canva before and I didn’t love it because it won’t save my work and I lost it all. Right now I use Picmonkey and I don’t love it either. But Canva makes it look so easy!
It’s $12.95 a month. It’s weird that it didn’t save your work! I’ve never had that problem before. Hopefully it was just a glitch.
I have used the purchase-as-you-go version of Canva for a few posts, but had no idea it would do all that with the business version. I’m usually a PicMonkey gal, but may have to look into this. I’m pretty low budget on the blogging as well.
I haven’t used PicMonkey too much. It took forever to load on my computer and I lost patience. Maybe I should give it another go, just to compare.
This is the first time I’ve heard of canvas. I’ll have to look at there prices. I was just thinking of how I can freshen up my media kit using an alternative to InDesign.
I haven’t heard of InDesign before. You could put together an amazing media kit with Canva!
I absolutely love Canva. I should probably invest in their premium service but for now I think I’ll keep it at the free until my photos get out of control and I need those folders. I love the fonts that they already have.
They have great fonts, and I love that they keep adding more!
I haven’t used Canva but I’ve thought about looking into it. I just love Photoshop and I have the photography subscription with Photoshop and Lightroom (which I need to start using) so I use that instead.
I’ve used Photoshop a little, but it was really overwhelming. I want to study up on it some before I try it again. 😉
OMG wow I didn’t know you could do all that!!! Great, now I want to upgrade Canva too. Totally would make things easier. Right now I copy a recent design and edit that.
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The templates feature saves me so much time! And it does make things easier!
Canna is awesome! I’ve been on the fence about switching to Canva for work but like you said, I think it’d really help with templates!
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The templates are one of my favorite features!
I absolutely love canvas! I’ve toyed with the idea of upgrading but as a student I think I’m going to stick with the free version (for now!). Thank you for running through the features of the upgrade though because I never really knew what they were!
That’s the great thing about Canva – even the free version is amazing!
I use Picmonkey but Canva for Work looks awesome
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I’ve tried Picmonkey once or twice, but Canva has me spoiled! 🙂
Low budget here too! I do use canva and love it. Still on free version. Recent “upgrade” has been to switch from free WordPress to hosted on Godaddy and now I can use some plugins that are helpful to growing and optimizing my blog.
Marsha, those are great upgrades! Congrats!
I have been hearing such great things about Canva for work, but I don’t have the extra to have it right now. I think the free version of Canva is just as great!
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I love the free version! I could probably survive without the paid version, but I just don’t want to! 🙂
I’m definitely more of a DIY’er. I try not to spend much on my blog. Currently the only things i pay for regularly are my hosting and domain name. I use the free version of Canva but you’re really starting to sell me on upgrading (I’ve been thinking about it for awhile). All those organization features sound like they would be extremely useful!
It’s been very useful! It’s definitely worth a try, and you can always cancel and go back to the free version.
I’ve always heard such great things about Canva! I use Photoshop, but I still would like to try it out!
And I’ve heard great things about Photoshop! One of these days I’ll get around to trying it. 🙂
I love using Canva! I remember when I discovered it!
Me too! That was a good day!
I love Canva as well. I’m still using the free version but you’re tempting me to upgrade!
It has definitely been worth the upgrade for me!
I love Canva and I never knew that you could do all of these things son Canva. Thank you so much for sharing this!
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I’m glad you enjoyed this!
I love, love, love Canva! Although I haven’t jumped in and upgraded to the next level yet. Do you ever have trouble with it looking like you designed it one way and then when you download it, that it’s a little off?
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Every once in a while I run into that issue. Now when I download images I always make sure to click on Save first. I haven’t had problems with that since I started doing this.
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