Coloring Posters

2018 Advent Resources

Mary’s Song Coloring Posters and Coloring Pages • ORDER NOW

Illustrated Ministry started over 3 years ago with the creation of our Advent coloring posters. This is now the fourth year we have created giant coloring posters for Advent. For this year’s posters, we returned to the traditional themes of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.

We are looking at the traditional Advent themes through the lens of Mary’s Song, found in Luke 1. The Mary’s Song Coloring Posters set includes five posters. The four Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love posters are 3′ x 2′ and the larger God is with us poster is 6′ x 2′.

Below is a list of the posters and the scripture included on each of them:

Poster 1 • Hope (Luke 1:46-50): All generations will call me blessed.
Poster 2 • Peace (Luke 1:51-53): God has filled the hungry with good things.
Poster 3 • Joy (Luke 1:54-55): The promise made to our ancestors.
Poster 4 • Love (Luke 1:39-45, 56): Blessed is she who believed.
Poster 5 • God is With Us (Luke 2:1-18): I am bringing Good News of great joy for all the people.

We hope you will begin imagining how you might use these beautiful coloring posters this season with your congregations, schools, and communities! And if you’re looking for some ideas, start here and then get creative!

Mary’s Song Devotional Guide • ORDER NOW

Our Mary’s Song Devotional Guide is designed to take you through the Gospel of Luke’s account of Mary’s Magnificat and Jesus’ birth as you color the Mary’s Song Coloring Posters & Coloring Pages. This devotional guide includes five short reflections and questions for both children and adults. It explores the themes of the HOPE we have when we remember all God has done, the PEACE that comes with God’s provision, the JOY we have in God’s promises, the LOVE we feel from God’s blessings and the celebration knowing GOD IS WITH US.

The devotional guide is great for churches to use in addition to the posters. It is also a great resource for individuals looking for an Advent devotional.

An Illustrated Advent for Families: Preparing the Way • ORDER NOW

Families are often searching for meaningful ways to talk about the birth of Christ but feel unprepared. No need to feel under-resourced or under-qualified to put together activities for your families. We’re here to help!

This year, our theme is “Preparing the Way.” As we journey through this season of Advent together, you will be introduced to prophets, or God’s messengers, who helped prepare God’s people for Jesus’ arrival. You will also encounter individuals who faced the unexpected, trusting in the promises of God for their lives, and yet continued to prepare for Jesus.

Each week, you will have the opportunity to create time and space to prepare for Jesus through scripture readings, discussions, and activities together. Our Advent devotions are based on passages from the Revised Common Lectionary readings. They are written so they can be used by children and adults of all ages.

An Illustrated Advent for Families: Preparing the Way also includes coloring pages to go along with the devotions, an Advent Calendar, and our brand new Illustrated Ornament Set (new for 2018!).

An Illustrated Nativity Sticker Sheet • ORDER BEFORE WE SELL OUT!

We are probably most excited about our Illustrated Nativity Sticker Sheet! This has been one of our most requested products – Nativity stickers with characters who aren’t white! And now we have what you’ve been asking for!

When you order our Illustrated Nativity Sticker Sheet, you’ll also get a digital illustration of a stable that you can use in any number of ways. Print it out at home to use, or print it in your bulletin for Christmas Eve so kids can put the stickers from the sticker sheet directly into the bulletin! We wanted to make this product as versatile as possible.

In terms of the quality of stickers, you won’t be able to find any stickers like these on those online discount stores. Our designs are unique, hand-drawn, authentic, and diverse. The stickers themselves are made in the USA, at a sticker company in Longmont, Colorado. They use premium, high-quality white vinyl and a special clear coat added for extra protection.

We think you’re going to love our sticker sheet!

Advent activities

Stand-alone Advent Activities • ORDER BELOW

Our previous editions of An Illustrated Advent for Families have been very popular! We’ve even received requests for some of the activities to be pulled out and offered as stand-alone activities.

You asked and we listened! These stand-alone products are perfect for families to use at home, or for Advent Fairs or other times at churches or schools when you may need a fun activity. Below are the three that are available this year:

An Illustrated Nativity: This activity was originally in our 2016 edition of An Illustrated Advent for Families. With An Illustrated Nativity, you can color and cut out different characters from the Nativity scene and build your own at home, together as a family.
An Illustrated Advent Wreath: Our Illustrated Advent Wreath was incredibly popular, and was originally in our 2017 edition of An Illustrated Advent for Families. You can color and cut out paper candles to go along with your paper Advent Wreath as a family or at your school or church
An Illustrated Ornament Set: New for this year’s edition of An Illustrated Advent for Families: Preparing the Way, we are creating An Illustrated Ornament Set. You will find beautiful ornaments that you can color and hang on your tree. These will be included in An Illustrated Advent for Families: Preparing the Way. However, you can also purchase it separately.

Illustrated Worship Resources

In addition to all of the above products, we also launched our next batch of worship resources. Those products are listed below:

Illustrated Worship Resources: Winter 2018-2019
Bible Story Coloring Pages: Winter 2018-2019
Illustrated Worship Resources: Advent 2018
- The Advent Edition will include children’s worship bulletins, Illustrated Children’s Moments and the Bible Story Coloring Pages for the four Sundays of Advent and the Sunday after Christmas.

Ways to Use Our Large Coloring Posters: Ten Creative Ideas

Adam Walker Cleaveland 5 Comments

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

Our Psalms Coloring Posters include nine unique coloring posters. The Psalms are from the Revised Common Lectionary (Year B) readings for Lent. 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:

- 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 those who prefer less detail to color)
- 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 PDF INFOGUIDE: 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 Infoguide 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.

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 ship to the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom. 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.

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

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.

Psalms Coloring Posters

All of the details about available options, costs, and shipping can be found on our store here.

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 Infoguide. 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 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.