Uploading your own images into Canva

Course contents
SECTION: 2
Project 1 - Social Post Design 3:51
SECTION: 11
Project 3 - Proposal Document 2:30

Questions

Course info

85 lessons / 8 hours 23 quiz questions 20 projects Certificate of achievement

Overview


Welcome to the Canva Design Essentials course! Led by professional designer Dan Scott, this course is your gateway to mastering Canva and building a strong foundation in design principles. Whether you’re new to design or looking to sharpen your skills, you’ll learn how to create impactful, real-world designs with ease.

With 17 years of professional design experience and multiple teaching awards, Dan has taught over a million students worldwide. His hands-on approach and industry insights make learning engaging and accessible, empowering you to reach your creative potential.

You’ll learn:
  • - Design Fundamentals
- Social Media & Marketing Graphics
- Logo Design & Branding
- Create Professional Documents & Presentations
- Learn how to Edit Video
- Canva’s AI Features

This course is ideal for beginners in Canva and design, whether you’re a teacher, student, small business owner, or aspiring designer. With step-by-step instructions, you’ll gain confidence in creating visuals that communicate effectively and look professional.

Take the first step toward becoming a Canva Hero—sign up now to transform your design skills!

Requirements:
  • - All you need is a free Canva account. You can get a free trial from Canva here to get started.

Who this course is for:
  • - Absolutely no previous Canva experience is required.
  • - This course is designed for newcomers to Canva and design in general, so no prior design experience is necessary.
  • - This is a relaxed, well-paced introduction, perfect for producing a wide range of projects. Only basic computer skills are necessary - if you can send emails and surf the internet, you're more than capable of mastering this course.

What you'll learn:
  • - Creating Designs in Canva
    - Working with Free & Paid Images in Canva
    - How to Crop Photos in Canva
    - How to Crop with Frames in Canva
    - How to Name Your Canva Documents Right
    - Uploading Your Own Images into Canva
    - Where to Get Free Photos for Canva
    - Understanding Workspaces
    - Squares, Circles + Layers & Position
    - How to Export a JPG & PNG from Canva
    - Mixing Colors in Canva
    - Design Styles & Color Palettes in Canva
    - Working with Text & Fonts in Canva
    - Adding Drop Shadows to Text in Canva
    - Curving Text Around a Badge
    - Group, Lock & Aligning Elements in Canva
    - Creating Dotted & Arrowed Lines with Text
    - Modifying Shapes in Canva
    - Changing Color of Graphics & Collections
    - Editing the Background Remover Tool
    - AI Image Generator with Magic Media in Canva
    - Mockups in Canva
    - Testing & Posting on Your Phone for Instagram
    - Editing Canva Designs on Your Phone
    - Using Canva Template Logos
    - MoodBoard WhiteBoard Brainstorm
    - Using Markup Tools, Stickies, Comments & Sharing
    - Logo Competitor Analysis in Canva
    - Designing a Custom Logo in Canva
    - Picking Fonts for Your Logo
    - Choosing Logo Colors
    - Using Gradients in Canva
    - Understanding Brand Kits
    - Light, Dark & Stacked Versions of Your Logo
    - Working with a Word Style Doc in Canva
    - Font Combinations & Pairing in Canva
    - Changing Text Styles in Canva
    - Styling Tables in Canva
    - Designing Header Banners in Canva Docs
    - Using Highlight Blocks, Dividers & Quotes in Canva Docs
    - Presentation Templates & Styles in Canva
    - Using Layouts in Presentations in Canva
    - Page Transitions in Presentations
    - Animating Pages & Page Elements
    - Creating Charts in Canva
    - Adding QR Codes in Canva
    - Adjusting Images in Canva
    - Darkening Images for Text Overlays
    - Using Magic Eraser in Canva
    - Magic Edit in Canva
    - Magic Expand in Canva
    - Trimming Video in Canva
    - Applying Video Filters & Adjustments
    - Animating Text & Changing Timing in Canva
    - Changing Stickers & Adding Motion Effects
    - Animating Photos in Canva
    - Finding Free Videos for Canva
    - Exporting Video for Social Media in Canva

Daniel Scott

Daniel Scott

Founder of Bring Your Own Laptop & Chief Instructor

instructor

I discovered the world of design as an art student when I stumbled upon a lab full of green & blue iMac G3’s. My initial curiosity around using the computer to create ‘art’ developed into a full-blown passion, eventually leading me to become a digital designer and founder of Bring Your Own Laptop.

Sharing and teaching are a huge part of who I am. As a certified Adobe instructor, I've had the honor of winning multiple Adobe teaching awards at their annual MAX conference. I see Bring Your Own Laptop as the supportive community I wished for when I was first starting out and intimidated by design. Through teaching, I hope to bring others along for the ride and empower my students to bring their stories, labors of love, and art into the world.
True to my Kiwi roots, I've lived in many places, and currently, I reside in Ireland with my wife and kids.

Certificates

We’re awarding certificates for this course!

Check out the How to earn your certificate video for instructions on how to earn yours and click the available certificate levels below for more information.

How to earn your certificate

Work your way towards your certificate for this course by following these simple steps.

  • Watch the course videos
  • Complete the Class Projects - look out for the videos marked with
  • Upload your class projects into the My Projects area in your account
  • Complete and pass the Knowledge Quiz (Merit level courses only)
  • Complete the Distinction Certificate Project (Distinction level courses only) - look out for the video marked with
  • Upload your Distinction project to the My Projects area in your account
  • Request your certificate when you've completed the requirements for the certificate level you're working towards

Good luck!

Pass certificates

We're awarding 'Pass' level certificates for this course.

You can work your way towards your 'Pass' certificate by following these simple steps.

  • Watch the course videos
  • Complete the Class Projects - look out for the videos marked with
  • Upload your class projects into the My Projects area in your account
  • Don't forget to request your certificate when all your projects are complete

Good luck!

Merit certificates

We're awarding 'Merit' level certificates for this course.

You can work your way towards your 'Merit' certificate by following these simple steps.

  • Watch the course videos
  • Complete the Class Projects - look out for the videos marked with
  • Upload your class projects into the My Projects area in your account
  • Complete and pass the Knowledge Quiz
  • Don't forget to request your certificate when you have passed the quiz and completed all your projects

Good luck!

Distinction certificates

We're awarding 'Distinction' level certificates for this course.

You can work your way towards your 'Distinction' certificate by following these simple steps.

  • Watch the course videos
  • Complete the Class Projects - look out for the videos marked with
  • Upload your class projects into the My Projects area in your account
  • Complete and pass the Knowledge Quiz
  • Complete the Distinction Certificate Project - look out for the video marked with
  • Upload your Distinction project to the My Projects area in your account
  • Don't forget to request your certificate when you have passed the quiz and completed all your projects

Good luck!

Downloads & Exercise files

Transcript

Hello. In this video we are going to upload our own images. Rather than relying on the ones built into  Canva, we're gonna upload them. I'm gonna show you the official way  and then I'm gonna show you the easy way that everyone does. Let's jump in. Alright, uploading your own images.

There's a bar here. Okay, so click on uploads  and at the top here it says, upload your files. Okay? And if you've downloaded the exercise files, go  and find the one called popcorn. Okay? It's in your exercise files.

Let's click open and you'll see it kind of little bar there. You'll see this like little upload graphic. It's pretty cool. Okay? And then you just drag it on. You can't drag it into no man's land  'cause it doesn't like stuff out here.

When you drag it into the document,  it often replaces the document. I'm just hitting undo, undo again. I'm gonna drag it so it's kind of like down,  even though I don't want it down here. It really like images coming into Canva. It really wants to try and think for you, okay? That there is saying, I'll be the background.

You're like, oh, I don't want you to be the background. Undo. I want you to just click it once  and it'll just appear in the middle. Now undo that again,  and let's use the little dotted lines  to delete them if you do need to move them. And what you'll find is there is the  official way using the uploads. I'm gonna close down uploads.

What you tend to do is I just open it up in the finder. Whether you are in a Mac  or pc, I don't really need  to add all three, but let's show you. I'm gonna drag all three of them into my document. What will happen is, can you see? They just appear. They appear.

You can see they're uploading there. They go the official way,  but it's easy just to drag them into the file. Okay? So I'm gonna get rid of all of them except this,  and I wanna switch out you for that one there. Oh, okay. Coffee now is gonna be a free popcorn day  'cause popcorn is cheaper for the reopening.

We've worked out, we've got a cafe quote  in and it's really expensive. I'm gonna double click on it and I'm gonna say, you,  you, there you go. It's my popcorn. You'll notice I can't kind of move it in  because there's not enough edge on the side here. We'll look at expand later on, which you can kind  of fake some background, but for the moment, that'll, Lou,  there used to be limits on uploading  images in the free account. That seems to have gone away.

That might come back. It was pretty hefty though, so it was fine. Alright, that's it. Uploading your own images,  do it the official way or do what everyone else does  and just drag 'em onto your document. Either way, that's it. I'll see you in the next video.
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