How to Design Your Own Sports Wallpaper

Expand your portfolio and make cool sports wallpaper/screensavers for yourself, your kids or your athletic program!

What you'll need:

1. Internet access
2. Canva (regular free account; no monthly subscription required) or use the app
3. 2 images of your chosen athlete (sample files included in this tutorial)

Sign into canva.com. (If you don't have an account, create one and answer the confirmation email to get started.)

Once inside, on the home page, click "Templates" and then type "phone wallpaper" in the search bar. Select "create a blank post"; the template should open in a brand-new window.

Once the template has loaded, click the canvas and maneuver your mouse to the top white toolbar to the colored circle where it says “Background color” (it should be in between “Magic BG” and “Position). When you click the colored circle, a toolbar should populate on the left. Scroll down to “default solid colors” and choose one of the team’s primary colors. For this example, I selected yellow for the Golden State Warriors.

Next, maneuver your mouse to the left side of the screen again and select the “Text” icon. Scroll down to Font Combinations and select “Tech Stack”. When you select this option, it should automatically populate on your canvas.

Next, select the “stack” part of the text, and press either the Delete key on your keyboard or the trashcan icon. Now, click inside the text box where “Tech” is written, and replace it with your athlete’s last name. For this example, I’ll type in “Curry” for Stephen Curry.

When you’ve finished typing, highlight the text, maneuver your mouse back up to the top toolbar, and select “Text Color” (it’s to the right of the numbered font size). When the left-hand toolbar appears again, select White.

Now, with the text still selected, maneuver your mouse back to the top toolbar, and look just right of the italics icon. Select “Alignment” one time to center the text.

Without having clicked anything else, now move your mouse just below the textbox to the two arrows in a circle (looks like a yin and yang). It should appear purple when you hover over it. Select this icon to rotate the textbox clockwise to a 90-degree angle (you should see the numbers moving).

Now, select the entire text box by using the “move tool” (next to the purple rotating tool you just used) and move it to the center of the canvas; wait for two perpendicular lines to appear. These lines let you know that the text is centered on the canvas.

Next, maneuver your mouse to the left-hand toolbar once again and select the Uploads button. Hit the purple “Upload files” button and select the first photo of the athlete from your chosen file folder. (The image of Curry I’ll be using is already in my library, so I’ll select it one time for it to populate.)

When the image appears, use the purple corners/borders to resize it as necessary. Then, use the move tool to center the image on the canvas and wait for the perpendicular lines to appear, as previously shown.

Next, move your mouse to the top white toolbar again and hit the three white dots to the right of the Animate button. When it says “See More”, select “Position”, and when the left-hand toolbar pops up once again, select “To front” to bring the image to the front of the canvas.

Now, with the image still selected, move your mouse to the top white toolbar once again, and select the “Edit” button on the far left. When the left-hand toolbar populates again, scroll down to “Effects” and select “Shadows”. Select “Drop” or any other shadow of your choosing, and feel free to change the angle/distance.

Move your mouse to the left-hand toolbar again and select “Uploads” again and upload the second background image of the athlete. For this selection, drag the image and wait for it to hover and enlarge itself, and then release the image onto the canvas.

With this image selected, move your mouse to the top right toolbar again, hit the three dots right of the Animate button, select Position, and now on the left-hand toolbar, select “To back”, This will move that image to the very back of the canvas.

With the background image still selected, move your mouse to the top white toolbar, and hit the black and white checkered button (Transparency). Reduce the transparency or opacity down to 15 percent.

You’re done creating your wallpaper! Select the Share button in the top right corner and download/save your image to use as your new wallpaper. Rinse and repeat this process to create simple wallpaper of any athlete!