How to Make Printables with Canva
Last year, as we were closing up our old clothing shop, we wanted to find ways to still be creative and make money so we tried out making printables on Canva to sell on Etsy. We were eager to find out if selling digital products on Etsy was profitable. We started last January and focused mostly on Valentine’s Day printable cards for the first few weeks. We only made $25 the first month but the next month that jumped to $150. While this isn’t a ton, it was also only a few hours of work and now it lives on Etsy and those same printables are reselling again this year. We ended up making over $2,000 the past 6 weeks on Valentine’s Printables! One of them sold over $1,600 and only took about 30 minutes to make! Our best selling printable was a printable Calendar that we sold for $4.50 and we made over $800 on that one! The best part is it only took about an hour to make! Not a bad hourly rate! All in we probably put around 200 hours combined over the past year making printables and we made 5 figures on Etsy with our printables and embroidery products! With the designs we have from last year plus the few we added this month, it feels attainable to double our revenue with additional designs!
Over the past few months, we’ve learned some tips and tricks for streamlining the process for creating the printables and getting the listings posted to Etsy or our website!
First, create an account on Canva and select the design size. We typically select 8.5x11 so your customer can print from easily! Next, choose a theme for your printables. Are you interested in creating motivational quotes, meal plans, or party decorations? The choice is yours!
Once you have your theme in mind, it's time to start designing. Canva has a wide variety of templates and design elements to choose from, so you can make your printables as simple or as complex as you want. Add your own personal touch with custom fonts, colors, and graphics.
After you have created your design, it's time to save it as a PDF file. This will ensure that your customers can easily download and print your printables at home. Then, create a listing on Etsy and upload your PDF file. Make sure to include high-quality images of your printables so that potential customers can see what they're buying.
That's it! With a little bit of creativity and some hard work, you can start earning money by selling your own printables on Etsy. Get a jump start with our list of 20 Easy Printables to Make on Canva or our Step-by-Step Guide on Getting Started with Profitable Printables!
