Being a believer in the healing power of nature and the natural world, I created a one minute relaxation ASMR video. I downloaded several commercial free nature stock videos without sound and created a nature back track compiled of several audio clips and sound effects I mixed together, then I colour graded all the clips for a better consistency and of course did gentle transitions dipping to black. The one minute takes you through the day from early morning to night. Very relaxing to do and love the beauty of nature…

Here is a short, simple video I created for my employer IMSM for World Suicide Prevention Day. I wanted to keep it simple, thoughtful and to create emotion where the viewers have their own interpretation in their head. It starts with stock video clips of people deep in thought, how a day and a time can feel overwhelming. But with the sunrise comes another day, there is always hope, “Reach Out, Be There, Start a Conversation…”

It was important to find the right music and time the cuts with the music. I absolutely put my heart and soul into creating emotion through simple footage. It takes as long to select the right footage and music as it does editing the short video!

C xxx

So Canva has a great selection of custom frames to use but searching for “WOMANS HEAD WITH TWIGGY HAIR” is unlikely to display the exact frame you want that you can just drop a photo into. But don’t despair, there are a few ways around this which will stop you sobbing pathetically into your sleeve from sheer frustration and disappointment. Here is a simple overlay style frame. Away we go…

First create your canvas, I’ve used the Instagram post standard size of 1080px x 1080px and the first thing you want to do is source the elements you want to put together in a silhouette for the finished artwork. In this case I found a silhouette of a woman’s head and some tree branches. I placed these on the canvas and resized and rotated the twigs until they gave me the look I was after. Next I added a title in the font I really liked and finally I made sure all the text, woman’s head and twigs were all changed to the colour black.

In the next step I downloaded the image as a .png with the plain white background because I wanted to then import it into Photoshop to use the magic eraser tool to make all the black elements on the design transparent.

Once imported into Photoshop, I selected the magic eraser tool and clicked on the black areas that I wanted to become transparent. For me this was all the text and as much of the head and twigs as possible. This was quick and easy to do.

Once this stage is completed you will need to export as a .png and upload it to your design in Canva via the uploads button. Before you move it to your design page, select the background you would like to show through the transparent elements you have just created in Photoshop. I had visualised the ‘Aurora Borealis’ showing through the transparent text and the ‘TWIGGY-HAIRED-WOMAN’ in my design so I found the photo I liked and added it to my canvas.

Finally I adjusted the size and position and then added my uploaded frame with the transparent elements over the top and you can see below how it finally appeared.

This is a great way to add interest when creating a social graphic or just having some fun.

Gotta love Canva!

C xxxx