Coloring Posters

Ways to Use Our Large Coloring Posters: Ten Creative Ideas

Are you thinking about purchasing a set of our large coloring posters, but you’re not sure how to use them in your context? Are you looking for inspiring ways to use our large coloring posters? Well, whether you work in a church, hospital, retirement community, school or many other places, we got you covered! Over the past few years, we’ve been inspired by so many of our customers and the creative ways they have used our large coloring posters. We’d love to share with you ten creative ways that you can use them, but trust us when we say there are many more ways to use them. Just place your order and get creative!

Ways to Use Our Coloring Posters

Where to Use our Large Coloring Posters

While we have had families order our coloring posters and have a great time coloring them, because of their size, they are ideal for communities where many people can gather around the posters and color together. Below is just a short list of some of the places we’ve heard about our coloring posters used. Keep reading below to learn about some ways to use our large coloring posters.

Churches
Schools (both Christian schools and public schools, depending on the poster set)
College campus ministries (we’ve even seen photos of our coloring posters being set up in college faculty lounges)
Retirement communities and nursing homes
Hospitals
Off-campus ministry sites (people have taken them to local meal centers or shelters and colored with guests)
Mission trips (some have used our regular posters, but others have printed off our Spanish-language coloring posters for mission trips
Conferences
Vacation Bible Schools
Summer camps
Retreats
Family reunions

Ways to Use Our Large Coloring Posters

Below are just a few of the ways which we’ve heard about our customers using their large coloring posters. But people have also found other creative ways to use them, so let this list be just the jumping off point for you and your community and your imaginations!

All-ages education: Host an all-ages education hour during Advent, Lent, or during the summer. Gather folks together for coloring and conversation. Many of our coloring posters also come with Devotional Guides available that can help guide those conversations.

Advent/Lent: If you have a kickoff event for a special time during the church calendar year (i.e. an Advent Fair), grab a set of the posters for all to gather and color together.

Coloring with Multiple Generations: Have your children’s ministry or youth ministry take some posters to a nursing home to color with the residents.

Coffee Hour: Many have found the posters a great addition to their Fellowship/Coffee hours. Whether the children were working on them during Sunday School or worship, or you just pull them out for that time after worship, it’s a great opportunity for older adults to sit down at tables with children and youth for coloring and getting to know one another.

Intergenerational Dinners: Whether it’s during Advent or Lent, or perhaps your church regularly gathers together on Wednesdays for an intergenerational meal, put the posters out on the tables while people are waiting and pose some thoughtful questions that connect with whatever the theme or topic is for the evening.

Finished posters make great art to display

Children’s Ministry: Find ways to incorporate the posters into your Sunday morning programs for children (whether that’s during Sunday School or during another time).

During Worship: Dedicate a portion of your worship space to allow young people (and those who are young at heart) to color during worship. We’ve heard this is an excellent way to allow children to engage with worship in a fun and creative way.

Youth Ministry: Children aren’t the only ones who like to color. We’ve had hundreds of youth programs around the world use our coloring posters. Give your youth a ‘study break’ some week when it’s close to finals and allow them to color the posters.

College/campus ministries: We’ve also had many campus ministries use our coloring posters. And we’ve seen photos of our posters in some faculty lounges at colleges where professors have worked on a poster together!

Private/Parochial Schools: Some private Christian schools have purchased our posters and found ways to engage multiple classrooms in creating a collaborative art project. If you’re a public school, you could purchase a set of our Inspired Posters, which don’t have over theological or biblical themes.

Share with Us More Ways to Use Our Large Coloring Posters

We hope this has been helpful and maybe sparked some creative ideas for you. Have you used our large coloring posters in ways that we didn’t list here? Tell us more in the comments below.

Psalms Coloring Posters for Lent

Adam Walker Cleaveland 8 Comments

On January 2, we released our third set of coloring posters for Lent: the Psalms Coloring Posters. Last year we had over 1,400 churches, schools, nursing homes and other communities from around the world using our posters. We’re just as excited about our Psalms Coloring Posters for this year – you can buy them here.

Our Psalms Coloring Posters will include nine unique coloring posters. The Psalms are from the Revised Common Lectionary (Year B) readings for Lent 2018. Each of the illustrations highlights specific themes and emotions from the Psalm. The texts from the Psalms are also incorporated into the drawing.

So whether you’re looking for an intergenerational program, a communal art activity or something different to do for Lent this year, our Psalms Coloring Posters provide a creative, engaging and participatory way of engaging with faith during Lent.

In addition to the large physical coloring posters that we ship, we also offer the following products for Lent 2018:

- A digital version of the posters
- 8.5 x 11 coloring pages of the illustrations (including a simplified 8.5 x 11 version of the coloring pages for our youngest colorers)
- A Psalms Devotional Guide: This can be used, along with the 8.5 x 11 coloring pages, by individuals at home, or as an accompanying piece for churches who may wish to offer an intergenerational education opportunity focused around the Psalms Coloring Posters.

One of the great things about our Psalms Coloring Posters is that they can also be used anytime you wish, and are not uniquely tied to Lent. While the Psalms come from the RCL texts for Lent (Year B), these are also Psalms that can (and should!) be studied and read and illustrated and colored throughout the year. So it isn’t a problem if you don’t finish all the posters. You can now also use them another time for youth group, a Bible study on the Psalms or….who knows?! Get creative!

We hope you’ll take a few minutes to check out some additional details about our Psalms Coloring Posters below. You can also get a preview of the nine poster illustrations below.

DOWNLOAD INFORMATIONAL PDF: If you don’t have time to read through this entire post right now, or if you’d like a PDF handout that you can print out and share with others, we’ve put together a detailed informational PDF about our Psalms Coloring Posters. You can download it here.

Why the Psalms?

When I was a kid, whenever I’d ask someone where in the Bible I should start reading, inevitably someone would say, “Alright. Close your Bible. Now open it up to about the halfway point. Start reading.”

If you do that, you’ll almost always end up in the Psalms.

Reading the Psalms as a kid was a way into scripture that allowed me to figure out that emotions were a good thing, and that we shouldn’t try to hide them from God. Reading the Psalms as a kid gave me words to express the feelings I had, and helped me to see that the authors of the Psalms struggled with many of the same things I struggled with.

The Psalms are a great source of theological creativity, depth, and wonder, and we’re excited to be able to offer children and people of all ages a way into the Psalms this year for Lent.

Psalms Used for our Psalms Coloring Posters

Below I’ve listed each of the posters with the accompanying scripture, as well as which days in Lent we would suggest using each of the posters. Again, we made these posters for use anytime during the year, but I’ve listed the proposed dates for Lent 2018.

Poster 1: Psalm 25:1-10 (1st Sunday in Lent)
Poster 2: Psalm 22:23-31 (2nd Sunday in Lent)
Poster 3: Psalm 19 (3rd Sunday in Lent)
Poster 4: Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22 (4th Sunday in Lent)
Poster 5: Psalm 51:1-12 (5th Sunday in Lent)
Poster 6: Psalm 31:9-16 (Palm Sunday/Liturgy of the Passion)
Poster 7: Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19 (Maundy Thursday)
Poster 8: Psalm 22:1-22 (Good Friday)
Poster 9: Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 (Easter)

Quality Poster Prints on Thick Paper

If you’re new to Illustrated Ministry, chances are you found out about us through our large coloring posters. Maybe you saw them at another church or community or saw photos on Facebook. We’ve had thousands of churches all around the world using our large coloring posters since 2015. Our Psalms Coloring Posters are the eighth set of large coloring posters we’ve released, and we know that you’re going to love them.

Part of the reason our posters are loved by so many is the quality of the posters themselves. We’ve gone through a few different types of paper with our coloring posters, and we are thrilled with the paper we’re currently using. In the past, we used a thick paper that had some coating on it, which happened to make the posters a little challenging to color with markers. However, the 32-pound paper we currently use works great with colored pencils, crayons, and markers. Since we made the switch, we have received zero complaints about coloring the posters.

When you buy the physical posters from us, you will receive the illustrations on an amazingly high-quality paper.

We currently only ship to the United States and Canada. Since we have a large community of international customers, we also provide our poster illustrations as downloadable digital files. We know that for some folks, getting the digital files can be more convenient (and for some, it’s the only option). We are happy to provide that resource.

However, the quality of paper you will get at other print shops (or stores like Staples/FedEx) is not nearly as nice as the quality that we provide when we ship the posters to you.

Don’t get us wrong – it’s certainly not bad (we shipped our very first two sets of coloring posters after having them printed at Staples). But now that we are connected with a local print company in Chicago, they can provide us with a very high-quality paper. And trust me, once you see all the children who will want to color these, you’ll want sturdy paper so they survive little kids wanting to crawl over the posters and color them!

Ways to Use Our Psalms Coloring Posters

The creativity of our customers is amazing! We love seeing all of the creative ways that people use our posters in their ministries and communities. Below are just a few examples of some fun ways that our posters have been used by folks:

Advent Coloring Posters — Crossroads Church of Kansas City, Missouri

While our name is Illustrated Children’s Ministry, churches find our posters to be a slam dunk when it comes to intergenerational ministry. If you’re looking for ways to use these posters intergenerationally, here are a few ideas:

Host an all-ages education hour during Lent. Use our Psalms Devotional Guide as your curriculum for the class.
Host a weekly Lenten Soup & Salad Supper and incorporate coloring the posters into your time together.
Have your children’s ministry or youth ministry take a poster to a nursing home and color with the residents.
Leave the coloring posters out on tables during Fellowship/Coffee Hour after church for people to sit, color, and talk with one another.
Send posters (or cut-up portions of posters – see Crossroads Church of Kansas City’s photo above) home with families to work on at home. Then watch your poster come back together at church as people bring their finished pieces to church with them.

Here’s What You Need To Know

Poster Details & Cost

Our Psalms Coloring Posters include nine 2’x3′ posters. The costs of our posters are listed below:

Physical Coloring Posters: $85
Poster Bundle: Physical Coloring Posters + Digital Files: $115
Digital Files: $50

Ordering Process

We launched these Psalms Coloring Posters on Tuesday, January 2. You can buy the posters here.

Shipping

These posters come in heavy-weight cardboard poster tubes via UPS Ground. Because we use UPS, we CANNOT ship any posters to P.O. Boxes.

We currently ship to the United States and Canada, and the shipping rates are listed below:

S&H for 48 Contiguous states: $12 (for one set), $18 (for 2-3 sets) and $24 (for 4+ sets)
S&H for Alaska/Hawaii: $20 (for one set), $26 (for 2-3 sets) and $32 (for 4+ sets)
S&H for Canada: $25 (for one set), and $35 (for multiple sets)

How Can I Find Out More Information About the Posters?

We hope you’re as excited about our Psalms Coloring Posters as we are. And we’d love to make sure you know precisely when we release them. Here are some ways that you can stay updated on the launch of our posters:

The best way to make sure you don’t miss any announcements from us is to download this free informational PDF. You’ll get the free PDF as a gift, and we’ll make sure you don’t miss out on anything.
Following us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is another way to make sure you see our poster announcement. And besides, we have a lot of fun on social media, and we’d love for you to join us!
Finally – if you haven’t joined our Facebook GROUP yet (and yes, this IS different than our Facebook Page – which you should probably LIKE as well), I’d highly recommend it. Our Illustrated Children’s Ministry Community Facebook Group is a fantastic online community. People share ideas and examples of how they’re using our materials. We get a lot of great feedback and product ideas. Plus, there are exclusive discounts/promos given to our Facebook Group from time to time. You can request to join the group here.

Community Spotlight: How Churches Use Our Advent Coloring Posters

Adam Walker Cleaveland 3 Comments

Are you looking for a creative Advent activity for all ages? Over one thousand churches from around the world used our Advent Coloring Posters last year. It was an amazing experience for our team to follow everyone’s progress as they shared photos of their communities coloring the posters. There are so many different ways to use our coloring posters, and as we’ve mentioned before, there were children’s ministries, youth ministries, college groups, retirement homes, hospitals and entire churches that found ways to utilize these big coloring posters.

Advent activity for all ages

I had a chance to hear from some of the folks who used our posters, and I wanted you to hear from them in the short testimonials below. Take a few moments to read through some of these examples, share them with your friends and colleagues, and start dreaming about how your community might be able to use our Advent Coloring Posters as an Advent activity for all ages. You can find out all of the important details about our posters here, and they will be going on sale October 17!

FREE INFORMATIONAL PDF: Would you like a PDF handout that you can take to your next staff or committee meeting to tell them about our Advent Journey Coloring Posters? Click here to download an informational PDF handout all about our coloring posters.

The testimonials are below, followed by a small gallery of some more of our favorite photos from last year’s Advent Coloring Posters!

The Perfect Advent Activity for All Ages

Reflecting & Coloring

We used the Advent Coloring Posters as a time for all ages of our church to reflect and color together. They were then used as the backdrop for our Sunday School Christmas program and hung up for the Christmas season in the Church.

-Shanna VanderWel, Director of Youth and Family Ministry, Augustana Lutheran Church

Posters Also a Great Teaching Tool

We placed the posters each week on a large table in the center of our Fellowship Hall with colored pencils and invited people of all ages to participate in coloring the posters. We took one of the posters to our Youth Lock-In, and they joyfully colored it – and loved it! The posters were a great teaching tool. Looking at and explaining the different parts of scripture that each panel represented was a wonderful way to educate during Advent because the illustrations showed the depth of the story.

On the morning that we adorned the Nave and Sanctuary for Christmas, we put the posters together up on the east wall, and they were beautiful! They represented the beauty of community, which is what Jesus calls us to be. Thank you so much for these beautiful and thoughtful illustrations.

-Teresa Ryther, Christian Formation Coordinator, Good Shepherd Episcopal Church

Families Can Color Posters Too!

The children colored posters in the front of the sanctuary during worship, and we hung them in the sanctuary the following week. Sometimes a family would volunteer to take them home to finish since they’re kind of big! They are now on display in the main hallway of our church.

-Kristen Koch, Pastor, Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran (ELCA)

Community Collaboration

We started colouring the posters during our Advent Event and then had them out each week during Advent. After worship, people gathered around them during fellowship and coloured. We also took them to the school, so it became a community collaboration to decorate the church for Christmas.

-Nicole Hall, Child Youth and Household Ministry Coordinator, St. Paul Lutheran Church – Blair Athol, Australia

Coloring During Worship

We had a large open area in the back of the sanctuary (there used to be pews but they had been taken out several years ago) where we set up a table and chairs and the coloring posters. Children were invited to join the DCE at the table following the Children’s Sermon to work on the posters. Once we finished the posters, we hung them in Fellowship Hall.

-Laurie Fields, pastor, First Presbyterian, Harrisburg, Illinois

Coloring During Worship

Bonding & Coloring

We placed our Advent Coloring Posters in the children’s area at the back of the church, and during the service children and their families coloured them. Also, others in our community colored during coffee after the service, and it helped to make bonds between the different generations.

-Sarah Jones, Sunday Club Volunteer, St. Mary’s Church, Gomersal, England

Service, Community, and Coloring

We hung our Advent Coloring Posters in the city soup kitchen where our church meets so that they could be enjoyed during the week. We colored them at the community center, and so many people participated. People LOVED the art and the other Bible stories and themes in the posters other than the Christmas narrative.

-Angela Moyer, Co-pastor, Ripple Church

Everyone Colours! An Advent Activity for All Ages

We distributed the Advent Coloring Posters to different groups in our congregation (seniors, children’s ministry, teens, parish council). Each group would then bring them to their allotted Sunday, lead the lighting of the wreath, and then put the poster up on the wall. The first year we put them up in black and white, and then swapped for the colour poster. The creep of colour around the walls was fantastic.

-Jemma Allen, Priest Associate for Children, Young People and Families, All Saints Anglican Church, Howick, Auckland, New Zealand

Coloring in Sunday School

We used them at our St. Nick Party and in our Sunday School program. We also gave the small versions to our families so they could also color them at home.

-Erica Jeglum, Director of Family and Youth Ministry, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Indianapolis

We Can Color at Church AND at Home

Our church had larger posters printed and put them together in our sanctuary for Christmas. We also had 8.5×11 size pages in the worship bulletins for everyone and showed them how to put them together at home. People loved them!

-David Brown – Pastor, Trinity United Church of Christ, Akron Ohio

Additional Photos from Advent 2016

As you can see in the photos and stories from above, and the images below, our Advent Coloring Posters indeed do make a perfect Advent activity for all ages.