How to make a coloring book to entertain your kids

Whether you need a coloring activity in a pinch, or you want to create a unique coloring book for your color-loving kids, Canva makes it easy. Coloring is an excellent way to entertain and educate your kids and stoke their creativity.

Coloring isn’t just great for kids, it’s a quick activity that’s easy to set up with minimal mess, so pack up is easy making it great for educators and parents alike. Coloring really is great for kids. It helps improve their fine motor skills and ability to focus, it helps stimulate creativity and self-expression as well, and they can learn about colors and even color theory too.

Coloring books are plentiful and inexpensive but often the themes are repetitive or, as the kids will tell you, boring! So what makes a coloring book great? In short, a book with a strong theme. Whether it’s garden images, animals, birds, or cars, it will always be better than a coloring book full of random images. Random images are still fun, especially if you hand select them for one child, but if there is a visual narrative or a journey they can follow, it’s way more engaging and rewarding for them.

There are more than 300 coloring page templates on Canva so you can start inspired. Plus, if your kids start getting bored with a certain theme, it’s easy to create something new. Remember templates are a starting point, so even if you can’t find one that matches the theme you’ve chosen, select a template that resonates with you and you can customize it. When choosing your template, think about how you’re going to print it (landscape, portrait or square) and resize your design accordingly. You can also do this at the end but you’ll save time by doing it now (it saves you having to tweak your design and fill in gaps at the end).

Let’s say the theme for your coloring book is ‘beach day’ because maybe you have a beach holiday coming up. Start by removing whatever elements you don’t need from the template. And then, go to the elements tab on the left of the editor and search for some beachy things to include – bucket, dolphins, towels – whatever you need, you’ll find in here. Why not sneak in some spelling and counting while you’re at it?

Once you’ve finished designing your coloring book, you can print it directly from Canva. If you want something more immediate and you happen to have a working printer at home, simply save it as a PDF⁠(opens in a new tab or window) and print it as normal. If you want something a little more special, in the top right click ‘Share’, then ‘Print Your Design’. Photobook (Landscape) is an excellent option as it allower plenty of room for coloring away from the central fold line. Then simply follow the prompts, which includes proofing your design to ensure the best possible final product. And just like that you’ve created an inspiring and entirely unique coloring book to entertain your kids.

For a more in-depth look at how to make a coloring book to entertain your kids, check out our video tutorial⁠(opens in a new tab or window).