Red Barn Milestone Banner

Who doesn’t love to show off pictures of their little ones?! You can hang this banner up all year round or use it as a decoration for their first birthday. The banner is a great way to display how much they have grown in a year or display special moments. This project was made on a whim I didn’t really have a plan for it until a couple of days later. I gave one to a family member as a part of her baby shower gift.

Milestone banners can be used for more than just babies they can be used to show the first year of a relationship from newly started out to married for years. These can be customized to an occasion from the designs, colours, embellishments and number of pictures.

Materials

• 3 pieces of red cardstock 12 by 12 
• 3 pieces of black cardstock 12 by 12
• Twine or whatever you would want to use to hang it
• Glue tape, glue stick or glue pen - for gluing pieces together 
• Glue gun - gluing the twine on the back if you want (optional)
• Clothes pin - to attach the barns to the twine
• Cricut machine - any cutting machine
• 12 by 12 cutting mat(s)
• Scraper 
• Tweezers 
• Cricut Design Space (DS) - on a computer, tablet or phone

How to make:

Making the barn 

1. Open DS and open a new project. 
2. Go to images and search for a barn.
3. Pick the barn image you want to work with and add.
4. Adjust the image to the size that you would like it to be.
5. Duplicate the barn 11 times you should now have 12.

Adding the numbers 

1. Click on the text box and when the box pops up type in “1”.
2. Go to the top and select the font you want to use. 
3. Take the “1”, place it over the barn, and center it. 
4. Adjust to the desired size.
5. Duplicate the “1” and make a “2” and so on.
6. Repeat this until you have all “1” through “12”. 

Cutting the barn & numbers - this is where having multiple mats helps but is not necessary. 

1. Put the cardstock on the standard green mat and use the scraper to help adhere it to the mat. If needed add tape to the edges to help hold it down.
2. Turn on the Cricut machine and ensure the premium fine point blade is loaded. 
3. Put cardstock onto the mat or mats depending on how many images. The machine wants you to keep feeding it. 
4. Go to “Make it” when you are ready to cut.
5. Pick the materials option and click continue.
6. Set the material to 60 or 80-lb cardstock. If you don’t see the material you are looking for go to browse material (maker) or custom material (air 2).
7. Load the mat into the machine when prompted.
8. Click the flashing “C” when it starts and repeat as needed.

Removing the cardstock

1. Unload the mat when prompted and load the next mat (if you are using multiple mats)
2. Flip the mat over and peel the mat off the cardstock. This helps to keep the cardstock from curling.
3. If you need to use the spatula to help lift if the images stay on the mat and didn’t want to come off the mat.
4. Repeat as needed.

Putting together the barn

1. Take the glue tape and add the glue front piece to the back piece. Take your time and line up the edges. 
2. Add glue to the number and use the tweezers to help position the number where you want it and place it down.
3. Repeat for all the barns.

Attaching the barns to twine: 2 different ways 

1. Attach the barns to the twine using the clothespins
2. Use a glue gun to attach the twine

Once you have figured out how you want to attach the barn pieces to the twine or yarn hang it up for everyone to see at your celebrations!

Thank you for stopping by! If you have any questions or comments pop them in the comment box below. I would love to hear from you!