Coloring Posters

A New Youth Ministry Resource: Coloring & Conversation

Many of you have been avid fans of our coloring posters and pages over the years.

And since the beginning of Illustrated Ministry, we’ve had many ask us some version of this question:

“When are you all going to start making youth ministry resources?!”

After a few months of listening to youth workers and surveying hundreds of youth pastors and leaders, we’re thrilled to bring you some fantastic news: we’re ready to launch our first youth ministry product!

And since we know that so many youth ministries have used our coloring posters and pages in the past, we’re introducing a product that will add new life to your coloring experience: Coloring & Conversation.

Coloring & Conversation

The title says it all—while you immerse yourself in meditative coloring, this new resource will spark engaging conversations.

Coloring & Conversation is divided into three sections: Look, Listen, and Learn. Begin your creative journey by looking at and naming images you see in the coloring illustration. Then, we encourage you to listen to some of our musical suggestions found in each lesson. We are also working on curating a Spotify playlist that we will make available as soon as it’s ready. Finally, the heart of Coloring & Conversation lies in the thought-provoking quotes and questions specific to the theme to encourage conversation and learning.

*Youth at Christ Church Cranbrook coloring our Stations of the Cross Coloring Posters*

Our first Coloring & Conversation perfectly complements our new Advent Coloring Posters and Advent Coloring Pages. It includes four lessons on hope, peace, joy, and love. While they align well to be used during the Advent season, the beauty of this product is that it can be used to encourage meaningful discussion all year long.

The possibilities are endless with Coloring & Conversation, whether it’s a vibrant youth Sunday school curriculum during Advent, an intergenerational activity after church, a stress reliever for college students during finals, or a dynamic addition to your young adult small group gatherings.

So, how exactly does it work? Order your Advent Coloring Posters or Advent Coloring Pages, and use the Coloring & Conversation guide to walk you and your group through a time of looking, listening, and learning. For example, as the group is coloring the Hope coloring page/poster, have your leader or designated individual read through the lesson and discussion questions, pausing for reflection and connection.

We are genuinely excited about this new product and can’t wait for you to dive into the world of Coloring & Conversation. We’d love to see your pictures and hear about your experiences when you do.

Young people at First Lutheran Church coloring our Stations of the Cross Coloring Posters

Additional Advent & Lenten Resources for Youth

If you are looking for additional resources to use with your youth or college ministry during Advent or Lent, check out some of the devotionals below:

Advent:

Now in Flesh Appearing Advent Devotional (illustrated edition / text-only edition)
God With Us Advent Devotional (illustrated edition / text-only edition)
Do Not Be Afraid Advent Devotional (illustrated edition / text-only edition)
In Light & Darkness Advent Devotional (illustrated edition / text-only edition)
Advent Journey Devotional Guide (coloring pages and coloring posters also available)
Mary’s Song Devotional Guide (coloring pages and coloring posters also available)

Lent:

This is My Body Lenten Devotional (illustrated edition / text-only edition)
God is Still With Us Lenten Devotional (illustrated edition / text-only edition)
Where Your Heart Is Lenten Devotional (illustrated edition / text-only edition)
Generous Giving Lenten Devotional (illustrated edition / text-only edition)
Stations of the Cross Devotional Guide (coloring pages and coloring posters also available)
Seven Last Words Devotional Guide (coloring pages and coloring posters also available)
Psalms (Year B) Devotional Guide (coloring pages and coloring posters also available)

Alleluia Poster: Get Ready for Easter

Adam Walker Cleaveland Leave a Comment

Ready to Download Your Alleluia Poster?

We’ve put the files together in a ZIP file, and we’ll send you the link when you click here to download your Alleluia Poster.

Originally created at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, this continues to be a beautiful and fun poster to create for your home or your church.

Alleluia Poster

We designed this Alleluia poster illustration so that it could be colored and displayed in homes around the world. And we want you to have it for FREE!

We hope our Alleluia Poster will be one more way you can add some color and beauty to your home and your community.

This poster is designed in our new Mosaic Poster Tiles format and comes formatted for both US Letter (8.5×11) and A4 paper. Here are some additional details:

Your download of the ZIP file will include two versions of the poster: a US Letter (8.5×11) file and an A4 file.
US Letter (8.5×11): You will receive a small version that fits on one 8.5×11 sheet of paper and the poster version (which requires four sheets of paper and measures 20.39″x14.67″ when you’ve assembled and taped together).
A4: You will receive a small version that fits on one A4 sheet of paper and the poster version (which requires six sheets of paper and measures 22.44″x16.14″ when assembled and taped together).

Below you can see some photos that give you an example of what it will look like when you’ve printed it, colored it, and assembled the poster tiles.

Putting Together the Poster — Color your poster tiles

Happy Easter!

Download it, email it to friends and families in your congregation, and share the link on social media! We hope you’ll share photos of these Alleluia Posters, and if you post them on social media, make sure to either use the hashtag #illustratedministry or tag us (we’re @illustratedmin on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest).

Ready to Download Your Alleluia Poster?

We’ve put the files together in a ZIP file, and we’ll send you the link when you click here to download your Alleluia Poster.

Alleluia Download Poster

Mosaic Poster Tiles: Coloring Posters You Can Print at Home

Adam Walker Cleaveland 1 Comment

We are excited to announce a new poster format for three of our Easter coloring posters: Mosaic Poster Tiles.

While we live and do ministry during the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve had to rethink everything. What does school look like? How do we lead worship from our homes over video-conferencing apps? Should I go to the grocery store, order my groceries, or just eat my pantry to the end?

This is why we started to create and offer free, faith formation weekly resources during the COVID-19 pandemic. You can sign up to receive these here.

The team at Illustrated Ministry has been having many of these same conversations over the past couple of weeks. Many of our customers love using our large coloring posters during Lent, and now that we are all physical distancing, it’s impossible (and unsafe!) to gather intergenerationally, color a poster together, and enjoy community, conversation, and coloring.

We’ve mentioned our Facebook Group before because it is a growing community of our customers and friends. But don’t think it’s just a place where we promote and sell our stuff. Our community posts photos, shares ideas for how they are using our products, and cares for each other! We recently ran across this post in our group, and it got us thinking:

Illustrated Ministry Community Group

Some of our best product ideas have come from our Facebook Group (including our bestselling Illustrated Nativity Sticker Sheets). We know people across the world are following shelter-in-place/stay-at-home orders/recommendations, and we immediately realized this could be a fantastic gift to offer to our community.

So…after a few days and almost a ream of paper (that we repurposed and recycled, of course), we are now able to offer this new poster format for three of our Easter coloring posters.

Mosaic Poster Tiles: Now what…?

Christ Is Risen Coloring Poster — *The photos in this blog post are included for instructional purposes only and do not reflect the actual sizes offered in the products themselves.*

So what does this mean for you, your family, or the community you serve? Essentially, anyone with a home or basic office printer can create a giant coloring poster to use at home. Or you could send out individual PDF “tiles” to members of your church, youth group, or campus ministry. People could individually color them, and then when we all come back and worship together, they can bring their colored tiles, and you can create a giant, beautiful mosaic.

What better way to represent the wholeness and togetherness of the church? When we all eventually come back together after being apart during COVID-19, we are reminded that we were truly never separated.

Details, details, details…

Illustrated Ministry serves an international audience, and given the complex nature of creating these Mosaic Poster Tiles, we wanted to make sure it would be an enjoyable experience for all. For that reason, we have created two versions of the Mosaic Poster Tiles: one formatted to print on US Letter (8.5 x 11) paper and another that is formatted for A4 paper. We’re hoping that helps our international friends have successful poster-creating experiences.

We’ve also created the Mosaic Poster Tiles in two sizes:

Family Size: This size is perfect to send home to families so they can create a small coloring poster that they can color and put together at home. The family size option requires around 4-6 sheets of paper.
Group Size: If you’re looking for a more significant project for a larger group, the group size is the perfect option. Maybe you want to send it out to a large group in your congregation, or you have a lot of homebound folx (aside from all who are currently physically distancing due to COVID-19) who would love to participate in a communal art project. The group size option requires around 32-50 sheets of paper.

So, how exactly do I do this?

We tried to make this a relatively simple project that anyone could do at home. That said, there is a disclaimer we should share:

If you are a perfectionist, proceed with caution. We tried many different methods for making these poster tiles, and we believe we ended up with the best possible option. While you’re assembling the “puzzle pieces,” you should keep in mind you are creating a beautiful, collaborative piece of communal art – not a gallery-ready fine art print. That said – it’s a fun project, and we can’t wait to see photos that you all share online.

Mosaic Poster Tiles Pinterest — *The photos in this blog post are included for instructional purposes only and do not reflect the actual sizes offered in the products themselves.*

Mosaic Poster Tiles Instructions

After you purchase, download, and open the ZIP file, choose whether you will be printing on US Letter (8.5 x 11) or A4 paper. Then select the size of the poster you would like to create (Family or Group size).

Distribution

Email: Use the split tile files to email out to individuals.
Hand out/Mail: Print out the PDF and distribute the individual pages (perhaps not the best or safest method during the COVID-19 pandemic – we would encourage emailing the files).

Printing

When you print, select either “Scale” and set at 96% or “Scale to Fit (Print Entire Image).” Each page contains “crop marks” that guide you as you cut margins off around the image. You can get an idea of how they work by looking at the below image:

Assembly

Cut: When it’s time to assemble, use the crop marks to guide you through cutting off the margins. Please be careful not to cut into the image. This format is designed to meet together when placed side by side, and there is no overlap of images on the paper.

Arrange: Piece together the poster by arranging the images on a large table or floor, as you would a puzzle. Don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t line up 100%…this is a fun project, remember?

Alleluia Butterfly Mosaic Poster Tiles — *The photos in this blog post are included for instructional purposes only and do not reflect the actual sizes offered in the products themselves.*

Tape: We recommend focusing on one page at a time as you begin to tape the pieces together. When two pages match and line up to your satisfaction, tape them together. Match the next page, line it up to your satisfaction, and tape them together. Continue until you complete taping all the pages together and make a complete poster.

Create and Share!

One of the joys for us on the Illustrated Ministry team is seeing your tweets, Instagram Stories, Facebook Posts, and MySpace updates (okay, no one is really on MySpace anymore…right?) where you share with us your beautiful creations! We think this new format of Mosaic Poster Tiles is going to allow even more groups to take advantage of our coloring posters, and we can’t wait to see your creativity unleashed!

Be sure and use the hashtag #illustratedministry or tag us in your posts – we’re @illustratedmin on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Mosaic Poster Tiles Examples

We’ve already started seeing some really fun examples of the ways people have used our Mosaic Poster Tiles. Here are some photos of the Alleluia Butterfly that people created over Easter, and below that you can see a video that was put together by Resurrection Covenant Church (Chicago):