Hidden Canva Secrets
Quick answer: This post shares hidden Canva tips for creating designs for your Cricut projects. Favorites include making skinny fonts thicker with Effects then Outline so they are easier to cut and weed, curving or warping text with the curved text tool or the Typecraft app, and using Apply Colors to Page to let Canva pick a matching color scheme for you. You can also upload your own images and fonts (font uploads require Canva Pro) and save finished designs as SVGs to bring into Cricut Design Space.
We get tons of questions all the time about how to use Canva. And we get it. Canva is an amazing design software you can use to create fantastic designs for your Cricut craft projects. But we understand that some people find it a bit tricky to use at first. That’s why we are here to help with these Hidden Canva Secrets you might not know about.
After reading this post, if you decide that you are just as excited about Canva as we are, be sure to check out our brand new course Digital Design for Creatives. It is jam-packed with everything you need to know about using Canva with your Cricut machine.
Hidden Canva Secrets
Signing Up for Canva
When you sign up for Canva, you can sign up for a free account. There are may things you can do with just the free version so it’s a good idea to sign up for it, try it out, and decide if it’s something you’ll use before you sign up for the paid version. If you are a business owner, are in social media, or work with your Cricut a lot, we think you’ll ultimately find that that paid version is something very useful for you.
Pro Tip: If you are a teacher or student or otherwise affiliated with a school or if you are part of a non-profit organization, check to see if you qualify for a free Canva Pro membership.
Creating Your Own Custom Designs
When you click on Create a Design, you will see that lots of size options open up in the dropdown menu. These suggested sizes can be very helpful but you can also click on Custom Size and type in the dimensions you want. Be sure to choose your unit of measurement as well: pixels, inches, millimeters, etc.
DID YOU KNOW?: You can upload your own images and fonts to Canva!
To upload an image, click on Uploads in the lefthand toolbar and then click on Upload Files. You can find the file and click Open or you can click and drag into Canva. Remember, you can use images from your Makers Gonna Learn membership in Canva.
If you want to add text, simply click on Text in the lefthand toolbar and then Add a Text Box.
Type in your text. With the text selected, go to the Font dropdown menu. You can use one of the fonts that Canva offers (they have a lot!) or you can go to the bottom where it says Upload a Font and add your own. Once you find the font you want to upload, click on the .OTF file and then click Open.
You will need to confirm that you own the font or have the right to use it. If you are a current Makers Gonna Learn member, you have commercial rights usage for our fonts. Our commercial use license is available on your member dashboard. Generally, when you buy fonts or files from other places, you have to purchase the commercial use license separately, but ours is included with our membership. This means you can use our files and fonts to create shirts or signs or other craft projects and sell them!
Important: Uploading fonts is a Canva Pro feature. You can upload images with the basic plan, though.
Making Skinny Fonts Thicker
Skinny fonts can be trickier to cut out and weed with your die cutting machine. So, in Canva, you can thicken them to make it a bit easier.
Type in your text into a text box. Then, with the text selected, choose Effects and then Outline.
Once you do that, you can adjust the thickness of the outline (similar to an offset in Cricut Design Space) it adds by typing in a number or moving the slider.
Pro Tip: Be sure to check your font to ensure that none of the letters get filled in. If they do, you will need to reduce the thickness of the outline.
Then you want to change the color of the outline to match the color of your font. This will thicken your font.
Remember that there are many different text effect options available in Canva so be sure to check them out too!
Curving and Warping Text
One of our other favorites to use is the curved text tool. You can move the curve to make it more or less curved as desired.
Click on Apps (left hand sidebar). Search for Typecraft. When you click on it, you will be able to warp your text. Take note that the fonts are limited in this app so you’ll need to choose from what is available there but they do have a good selection.
You can see that there are dots surrounding the text.
Move the dots to warp the text as you’d like. It takes a bit of practice but once you get the hang of it, this is such a fun tool. You can add borders and outlines to this as well.
Using Graphics
Canva has a wide variety of graphics available for your use as well. Just use the search bar to search for what you want.
If you find something that is roughly what you’re looking for, you can hover over that image and click on the 3 dots. It will give you keywords for that image and you can click on one to see more of that type of image.
We have many watercolor files on the Makers Gonna Learn website as well. As an MGL member, you can download any of those images and use them in Canva. You can simply click and drag the downloaded image into your project in Canva.
Customizing Your Designs
You can resize this as desired and add text to it.
If you want to use the same color scheme in the rest of your design, simply hover over the image and click on the 3 dots. Choose “Apply colors to page”.
It will automatically select one of the colors but if you don’t want to use that one, simply click on the 3 dots and click “Apply colors to page” again. Repeat until you get the color you want. This is really helpful if you aren’t comfortable with choosing a color palette yourself. Just let Canva do it!
Not only can you use SVGs and PNGs in Canva, but you can pull in actual photographs to use too. Just like with the other images, you can use the “Apply colors to page” function on a photo as well.
SVGs vs. PNGs
When trying to figure out whether an image is a PNG or an SVG, one way you can tell is by looking at the options given for editing. If you select the image and then don’t see the option to change the colors of it, it’s a PNG.
Contrast that with this HOWDY image. It is an SVG so as you can see, you are given the option to change the colors.
Pro Tip: A PNG image is a flat image with only one layer. An SVG has multiple layers.
Remember that once again you can use the “Apply colors to page” function to change the colors of the SVG if you’d like Canva to autogenerate those colors for you.
Another important thing to note about the difference between SVGs and PNGs is that when you scale up the size of an SVG, it’s not going to affect the quality of the image. However, if you scale up the size of a PNG, you can start seeing a drop in quality.
Although you can’t directly change the colors of a PNG the way you can with an SVG, there are still some edits you can make. Click on the PNG and choose Edit Photo. You can choose filters and effects that you can use to change the appearance of the image. Under effects, you can even choose Duotone and it will change your PNG to a two-toned image.
You can also go in and change the colors of the highlights and shadows as well as the color intensity.
Arranging Items on Your Canvas
If you want to add several images to your canvas in Canva and then position them evenly, simply select all of the images and then choose Position. There, you can choose Space Evenly with the options for Horizontally, Vertically, and Tidy Up.
Saving Your Designs as SVGs
If you want to save your image as an SVG, click Share and then Download. Use the dropdown menu to change the file type to SVG. In our example, we only wanted the flowers and not the background, so we chose Transparent Background. Click Download.
You can then upload your SVG into Cricut Design Space and use it for your Cricut projects!
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I make skinny fonts thicker in Canva?
Type your text, select it, and choose Effects then Outline. Adjust the thickness with the slider or a number, then change the outline color to match your font. Check that none of the letters get filled in.
How do I save a Canva design as an SVG?
Click Share, then Download, and use the dropdown to change the file type to SVG. You can choose a transparent background, click Download, and then upload the SVG into Cricut Design Space.
What is the difference between a PNG and an SVG in Canva?
A PNG is a flat, single-layer image and you cannot change its colors directly; an SVG has multiple layers and lets you change colors. SVGs also keep their quality when scaled up, while PNGs can lose quality.
