I’ve been watching a lot of short videos made by Canva users demonstrating the use of the “Bulk Create” tool. If you’re an old-timer like me, it’s similar to Mail Merge. Most of the videos I watch are showing how people who create social media content can benefit from “Bulk Create,” but I always like to think how I would use it in my classroom. With Valentine’s Day coming up, I decided to test out how “Bulk Create” could help me personalize some Valentines for students.

Step 1: I went to ChatGPT and asked it to generate some phrases I could put on Valentines cards from teachers to students. At first it gave me quotation marks around each phrase so I revised my request, and you can see what I got below. If you are reluctant to try ChatGPT, I’ve already copied and pasted them to a spreadsheet that you’re welcome to use here.

Step 2: If you aren’t using the spreadsheet I linked above, copy and paste your phrases to your own spreadsheet. Then add a column called, “Name” and add your student’s names. If you already have a spreadsheet with student names, create a new column, title it “phrase” and add the phrases to that. Download/Save the spreadsheet as a CSV file.

Step 3: Open Canva, and choose a Valentine template you would like to use. I chose a postcard that looks like this:

Step 4: Adjust the text. After an experiment, I realized the bottom text of the circle wasn’t going to work, so I deleted it. I also wanted to add student names after Happy Valentine’s Day, so I created a new text box and added that. Because I wanted there to be an exclamation mark at the end, added that in a separate text box.

Step 5: Begin the Bulk Create process by looking at your menu on the left side. If you don’t see Bulk Create as an option, click on apps. In the picture you below, you can see it underneath the “More from Canva” headline. Choose Bulk Create. You will be asked if you want to enter information manually or upload it. Upload your CSV file.

Step 6: Right click on the parts of your design you want to replace with items from your spreadsheet. Choose “Connect Data” and select which column should replace it.

Step 7: Generate your data. If you don’t want some of the names or phrases you can uncheck them before you generate.

Step 8: Download your file as a PDF, print out, cut, and you’re ready to give them to your students!

I’d love to hear what other ideas teachers have for using the Bulk Create tool in Canva! It could definitely be a time-saver!

Want some more Valentine’s Day ideas? Click here to download my free updated PDF of “Would You Rather Valentine’s Day Math.” And here is my Wakelet full of other fun!