27/03/2025
1. Download our Living Hope resources
To get started, you can download our resources and templates by heading over to AChurchNearYou.com and logging in. Click on Resource Hub and then Lent and Easter 2025. Once you have downloaded the assets, go to Canva.com to login or create an account. Nonprofits like churches can apply for free access to ‘Pro’ features on Canva with a Canva for Nonprofits account. Find out how you can apply for this here.
2. Create your design
Once you have set up your account, navigate to the purple ‘Create a design’ button which you can find in the top left corner of the Canva homepage. Here you can either choose to ‘upload’ a template by selecting one of the Living Hope template resources you downloaded, or you can select social media on the left-hand side and choose a size depending on the platform that you want to post on. Below you can see the current sizing guidelines for 2025.
| X | TikTok | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Landscape | N/A | 1200 x 630px | 1600 x 900px | 1920 x 1080px |
| Portrait | 1080 x 1350px | 630 x 1200px | 1080 x 1350px | 1080 x 1920px |
| Stories | 1080 x 1920px | 1080 x 1920px | N/A | 1080 x 1920px |
If you would like to create your design from scratch, then follow on for more details below.
We’re going to be working on an Instagram post for this example. Input 1080 x 1350px into the custom size box or select Instagram Post (4:5).
3. Name your design
When your blank design has loaded, you can name your design by clicking into the text box on the purple bar at the top of Canva. You can call it something like ‘Easter Sunday Instagram Post’. Canva will save your design and changes automatically as you go along.
4. Add your text
To start placing some information onto the page, you can copy and paste any text you would like to use from another document directly onto the page, or by navigating to ‘Text’ on the left-hand panel and selecting ‘heading’, ‘subheading’ or ‘body’ and writing it in. If you would like to adjust certain pieces of text to be a different size, I would recommend putting these as a separate text box. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look quite right, you can change this later.
If you need to undo anything, you can press the arrow pointing towards the left on the purple bar at the top of Canva. Or you can delete by selecting the text and pressing backspace on your keyboard. These apply to any other elements too.
5. Text layout
Once all your text is in your design, you can start to move it around to where you would like it to sit on the page. Do this by clicking on the text, holding and dragging it around. To centre your text when moving, you will see two solid pink lines appear that will indicate that it is in the centre of your canvas.
To create some hierarchy, you can make your header larger than the rest by using the toolbar that appears at the top when you select the text. Here you can adjust the font, size, colour, alignment, line height and so on.
6. Add some colour
To add the Living Hope branding to your design, navigate to ‘Brand’ and select ‘Add new’. By doing this you will be able to upload your downloaded resources, fonts and colour codes to your brand kit. If you need more information on how to do this, you can watch this short tutorial.
Once your brand kit is complete, you can apply the Living Hope colours and fonts to your text. You can also adjust the background colour by selecting the colour symbol that appears on the toolbar above and choosing from the Living Hope range of colours.
Tip: Make sure you can read the text clearly on the background colour so that your post is accessible and easily readable.
7. Add images and graphics
If you would like to add images to your design, you can drag and drop them from your computer onto your page or select ‘Upload’ on the left-hand panel. Here you will find all of your uploaded images and videos in case you need them again later.
You can add in graphics or shapes by navigating to the ‘Elements’ tab on the left-hand panel and searching for what you would like in the search bar. If you navigate to the ‘Brand’ tab, you will also find our Living Hope graphics which you can include in your design. You can simply click on these and they will be added to the page.
8. Change the size and placement of your graphic
You can adjust the size of your graphic by pulling the corners or edges, and rotate them using the little icon with two arrows in a circle that will appear on the edge of the element.
If you would like to put the graphic in front or behind another element, you can do this by right clicking on it and selecting layer.
You can also duplicate a graphic or piece of text by selecting it and clicking the duplicate icon on the small toolbar that appears above or below it.
9. Remove backgrounds and group elements
If you are adding a graphic that has a white background, you can remove this by clicking ‘BG (Background) Remover’ on the toolbar above and it will automatically take it away. Please note that you will need a Pro (or Canva for Nonprofits) account to use this feature.
Now that you’ve included everything in your design, you can make some final tweaks. If you would like to move certain elements together, you can select them by holding down the shift key on your keyboard and clicking on them all, then click ‘group’ which you will see on a small toolbar just above or below your selection. You can ungroup these again at any time.
10. Download your design
To download your image, click on the ‘Share’ button on the top right-hand corner of Canva, press ‘Download’, select ‘JPG’ from the drop-down menu and finally click the purple ‘Download’ button. You will then be able to save this to your computer.
Voila! You have a smart, eye-catching Easter design that is ready to post.
If you need any further help with learning how to use Canva, we host regular webinars that are free to sign up to and attend. You can find out more information here.
- Diana Marais, Junior Content Producer
