I had no idea how cool Canva was until I started playing around with it. Now I'm addicted. I think I spend more time on Canva than I do writing. I'm usually the last person I know to try something new, so chances are you already know how great Canva is. If you don't, just ask ChatGPT -- or Gemini -- or whatever LLM you prefer, and they'll give you step-by-step instructions on how to use it.
ChatGPT created the images I needed, and then I played with them at Canva. I gave ChatGPT my story in The Christmas Church, then we created prompts together that described what my characters were doing, what they looked like, what they were wearing, and what style I wanted the images to be in. I asked Chat to create the illustrations in the style of Thomas Kinkade, and I think it did a great job.
Once I had the images, I created the children's book, The Christmas Church, at Canva. It is also a video at YouTube, if you'd like to watch it. The book design is different from the video, but the story is almost identical. I tweaked a few things in the book, and the snowflake design is different.
Now, here is a very important warning. If you use Canva, don't use their elements if you plan to publish your book at KDP. Canva may allow you limited copyright for use of their elements in a book you design and create on Canva, but Amazon is stricter. There are people who have lost their KDP accounts because they were using Canva elements that Canva allowed. So don't use Canva's elements, have ChatGPT create everything for you because you will own the copyright. Also, save the original images you get from ChatGPT in case KDP ever wants to check if you own the copyright. That way you can show the original file, and prove you are the rightful copyright holder of those images.
Here are the descriptions and the YouTube video for my story, The Christmas Church: A Children's Story of Faith and Angels.
On a snowy Christmas Eve in 1965, Max and his sister Julia set out with
sleds, ready for adventure. But a sudden blizzard swallows the world in
white, leaving them lost and afraid - until a mysterious old man rescues
them and leads them to a glowing church in the storm.
Inside, they hear wondrous stories of Jesus, angels, battles in heaven,
and the power of God’s messengers.
This storybook video is meant to encourage children (and the child in
all of us) that even in the darkest storm, God’s hand is near.
The print storybook version is available at Amazon if you'd like the paperback version of this story for Christmas.
The video was created with Open Shot Video Editor, and the narration was created at ElevenLabs, (but that's probably another blogpost for another day).
Here is the link to buy the book: The Christmas Church
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