In this video tutorial you will learn how to create a Valentine post with drop shadows, and how to fill the letters with an image using Canva. See how easy it is to create this style of post, and also how to add your own brand style to it.

Watch the video tutorial now, or read the transcript below.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Let’s get started!

Hi, it’s Sue from Maker Biz Graphics here, and today I’m going to show you how easy it is to create a graphic like this. So I’m going to get started by just creating a new blank document. I’ve just come into Canva and clicked on the Instagram templates. So that’s why I’ve just got this square template here. So first thing I’m going to do is come across and I’m actually going to search for the letters. So to find them, I’m actually going to come into elements and search for frames and then you get all of these different samples that come up here. So when you’ve got this little cloud and sky and hills, that’s basically a photo frame. So you can drop photos and images into those, whatever you want to put in. But if you scroll down, you will eventually come to … just keep scrolling. You’ll eventually come to letters. So this is where the fun begins. Here we go. Let’s just throw in the letters. I’m just going to do L-O-V-E.

If you don’t have a Canva account yet you can sign up for the free or the paid version here

How to select letter frames you can add images to

I’ve got them all here. The first thing I want to do is highlight them all. So I’m just going to click the cursor and drag across, and you can see all of the frames that’s actually got all of them together. I’m just going to come up into the corner and make them a bit smaller. So I know that I’m keeping them all a consistent size by changing the size all at once. Let’s now start to put them into the square shape that I’m after. Here we go. You just move them around to where you want them. I’m pretty happy with that. I’m going to do the same thing again, click and drag, and again, make them a bit smaller. Now I’m going to center them. So once my pink lines are solid, there we are. That’s actually just sitting right in the center of my image. So the next thing to do is come and find the images you want to, of course, Canva’s got an incredible range of photos, and then you can just decide whatever you want to put in.

How to add images to letters

I’ve actually already got the pale pink florals from when I created it before. But whatever you’re searching for, you can put that into the search line here and see whether something comes up that you’re happy with but I can’t remember the exact ones that I used when I made that. I’ve got peonies and roses. But it doesn’t really matter. I’m just going to pick some new ones for this example. So as you drag that across, I’m now … over the top of that L I can drop an image into it and you can see that it’s changing to show the image there. So I just drop it in and it’s as easy as that. It’s just very simple to do. It’s just click and drag. So let’s see if I can find something else. I’m going to put in roses. Let’s go pink roses. Quite like this one. Just going to drop that one in here.

This is quite fun. Maybe a bit bold though for my letters. I’m not sure if I’m totally happy with that. I might go for one that’s a little bit lighter. Yeah, I think I prefer that one. And then I’ve got to find one more. There we go. So now if I double click on it, I can move it and then resize and then click off and you can see that that’s filling the letter nicely now. So there we go. We’ve got our four letters and they’re all filled with flowers.

How to create a drop shadow

The next thing I want to do is to create this drop shadow that is just a very simple one, but that’s the next thing I want to do. So what I’m going to do now is again, highlight all four and I’m just going to do command D. I think it’s control D if you’re on a PC, but command D on a Mac and I’ve now duplicated the letters and I’m going to come up to my color chart and pick something that’s going to work well. I’m going to come a little bit more into the pink. So there we go. I’m just going to highlight the letter and then add the color. Very easy.

How to change the size of the drop shadow

So I’ve now got my four shadows and I’m just going to position those backwards. There we go. So they’re all now sitting behind those letters so I could move them a little bit if I’m not totally happy with where they’re sitting. I’ll just highlight them again. Oops! Just got to make sure you get the shadow and not the image. And then you could use your arrows on your keyboard, and I’m just all together clicking those across a few and up a few times so that it actually brings that in just a little bit closer, so you just have a play around until you’re happy with where it’s sitting and then click off when it’s done. What I’d recommend now is actually just highlighting all of those together and come up to group so that they’re now all in one graphic. So they would all move together and that makes it very easy if you want to change the size again to make them a little bit smaller, larger, whatever you’re looking for.

How to add a background image

So there we go. Now, the next thing we’re going to look for is a background image. So coming over to photos and I’m going to put in … search for hugs and this image was one I used before. So I’m just going to click and drag it across and that’s just going to now drop into the background. Now I really liked this, but I’m feeling that the colors of the image are very orange and they’re not really tying in so nicely. I’ve got a lot of pinks going on here. So what can I do about that? Well, I can come up to effects and I’m going to come across to the Duotone and click one fuchsia and now that’s gone the other way, that’s too saturated. So I’m just going to double-click and here I can change the intensity.

I’ve got a feeling that this may only be available in Canva Pro, this feature, but you can sign up for a free trial if you’re not already a Canva Pro subscriber, but then you just play around until you get the sort of  colours that you’re looking for. I’m quite happy with that, but I want to actually knock it back a little bit in the transparency. So you come up to your transparency tool and just change that, I think I’m going to go around 60. There we go. Pretty happy with that. So that’s how you create it.

Create the images in your own style

Have a play around. Depending on your style, I’ve done a few different ones to give you an example, but you can just drop in a different background. So that’s just another image dropped in. That’s quite nice. Very easy to do. If your brightening colors are maybe much more light and pastel colors, you can just do something like this.

Join my email list for free access to the resource library

I made a couple of other ones here. I’m going to save these, all of these actually. I’ll put them in my resource library. You’re very welcome to sign up for the resource library. I’ll put the link in the description below. It’s free to join and inside I’ve got lots of different examples of original graphics and templates that you can use. I’ve got some that you can just add your own text to and others like this that you can just use straight away. And yeah, that hopefully is a good resource for you if you’re looking for something to post that’s nice and easy. Feel free to sign up for that. If you enjoyed this tutorial, please click the thumbs up button, subscribe and click the bell button so you get notified of new tutorials in the future. You can also visit my website at makerbizgraphics.com and follow me on Instagram @makerbizgraphics. I’d love to see you there.