Illustrated Ministry

Progressive Faith Resources for the Church & Home

You are here: Home / Archives for Coloring Posters

Coloring Posters

Mary’s Song Coloring Posters

4 Comments

Check out our Mary’s Song Coloring Posters, which you can purchase here.

2018 Advent Resources

In addition to our large physical coloring posters, we will also offer the related products below:

We hope you’ll take a moment to check out this post and look at the video and poster illustrations below.

NOT SURE IF THESE ARE RIGHT FOR YOU?
 CLICK HERE to download a free PDF of information that you can take to your colleagues/committees/staff meetings to share about our Mary’s Song Coloring Posters!

the Magnificat prayer

Mary’s Song Coloring Poster Themes from Luke 1 46-55

For these posters, we are looking at the traditional Advent themes through the lens of Mary’s Song, found in Luke 1 46-55. This passage is also known as the Magnificat prayer.

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.

These posters are designed to take you through the Gospel of Luke’s account of the Magnificat prayer of Mary and Jesus’ birth, found in Luke 1 46-55. Through the Mary’s Song Coloring Posters (and the accompanying devotional guide), you will explore 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.

As we thought about what to focus on for this year’s posters, we contemplated various passages of scripture, the world that we live in right now, and what we wanted to speak into that world through our art. In the end, we felt that the Magnificat prayer, Mary’s revolutionary and subversive song and prayer from Luke 1 46-55, felt like an important message to share.

Take a moment to view the posters and hear the words from Luke 1 46-55 in the video below:

This Advent, let us stop and ponder the words of the Magnificat prayer of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and imagine how we might bring about this vision and prayer in our world today.

Below are more detailed images of each of the Mary’s Song Coloring Posters:

Who Uses Illustrated Ministry’s Coloring Posters?

So many different groups of people have used our coloring posters over the years: Sunday School classes, youth groups, college ministries, men’s and women’s Bible studies, nursing home residents, and more!

But we’ve found that churches who have taken the time to create intergenerational opportunities with the coloring posters have received one of the greatest gifts of all: deepened relationships among people of all ages.

If you’re having a hard time imagining what it would look like in your space to use our coloring posters, take a look at some of the photos below and start getting creative!

How Do I Use the Mary’s Song Coloring Posters?

We are so excited to see all of the creative ways that congregations and communities use these Mary’s Song Coloring Posters. Almost 1,200 churches used last year’s posters, and we loved seeing all of the fantastic photos they shared with us. Here are some testimonials, and ideas, from churches who have used our posters in the past. And if you’re wondering how you can display your posters as beautiful art in your church when they’re colored, take a look at this fantastic tutorial for creating beautiful wooden poster hangers! And finally – here are ten creative ways to use our large coloring posters!

As we mentioned above, we’ve learned that most churches find the posters to be a slam dunk when it comes to developing 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 Advent. Use our Mary’s Song Devotional Guide as the curriculum for the classes.
  • Start coloring the posters during your Advent Fair.
  • Have your children’s ministry or youth ministry take a poster to a nursing home to color with the residents.
  • Host a simple soup/salad/sandwiches dinner on Wednesday nights during Advent and have conversation and coloring before or after eating together.
  • Leave the coloring posters out on tables during Fellowship/Coffee Hour after church for people to sit, color, and talk with one another.

Luke 1 46-55

Here’s What You Need To Know About the Posters

Poster Details & Cost

Our Mary’s Song Coloring Posters are made up of five large posters that cover Advent themes from the Magnificat prayer. The first four are 3’ x 2’, and the fifth poster is 6’ x 2’. You can purchase the physical posters, digital files to print yourself, or add the digital files to your order of the physical posters for the most flexibility to use the posters in a variety of ways.

The cost for our Mary’s Song Coloring Posters are listed below:

  • Physical Coloring Posters: $69.99
  • B&W Digital Files: $74.99
  • Digital Add-on: Save 50% off the B&W Digital Files when you add both the Physical Posters AND the B&W Digital Files to your cart and use the discount code MARYS-SONG-BUNDLE at checkout.

Ordering Process

Posters are available now and ship within a day or two of receiving your order. UPS ships our posters in heavy-weight cardboard poster tubes. Because we use UPS, we cannot ship posters to P.O. Boxes. If you list a P.O. Box as the shipping address, your order will be delayed until we can be in touch with you to determine an appropriate physical mailing address.

We ship our posters to the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Of course, we have many other international customers who have successfully purchased the digital versions of our posters and printed them locally.

2018 Advent Resources

2 Comments

2018 Advent Resources

Advent Coloring Posters

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′.

2018 Advent Resources

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!

Coloring Posters Devotional Guide

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.

Advent Devotions for Families

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!).

Nativity Sticker Sheet

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.

Children's Worship Bulletins

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:

Ways to Use Our Large Coloring Posters: Ten Creative Ideas

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

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.

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.