Woman in Real Life

I've had my Cricut Explore Air™ for not yet two months, but I have used it many times already. In fact, I've even had the audacity to offer a couple of tutorials - for my gold foil laundry jar labels and my gift tag ribbon garland made with old Christmas cards. I figure there are many other people out there who are new to the Cricut experience too. Hopefully those of you who are will enjoy learning along with me.

With that in mind, I am offering another fun and easy Cricut tutorial - for a simple yet pretty fall (or autumn) banner. I like to create my own free design whenever possible, and that's what I'm sharing here. For more sophisticated designs, you can also sign up for Cricut Access™ and get unlimited access to images, fonts and projects.



I chose to put "autumn" on my banner rather than "fall," mainly because I think it's a prettier word and lends a bit of formality to my banner. Apparently Americans say "fall," Brits and Australians say "autumn" and English Canadians say both "fall" and "autumn." Has that been your experience? Check out Fall or autumn: the Canadian dilemma. I can't believe that this can be found on the Government of Canada website. (There's even a poem!)

To start this craft project, I picked up a package of light card stock in festive fall colours from Michaels. Back at home, I sought a free way to create a pennant design. And here it is:

Make a Pennant Banner With This Free Design In Cricut Design Space

Select Shapes at the bottom of the Cricut Design Space. (I worked on my iPad.) Insert a triangle. If the lock icon on the lower left of the box surrounding the triangle is in the locked position, unlock it by clicking on it.


Unlocking the triangle enables you to drag it into a longer, more narrow triangle to look like a pennant. Once you like the shape, lock it again to ensure you don't accidentally change it.




Turn the triangle around so it's upside down. Insert a square and unlock it.



Shape the square into a very small rectangle and turn it so the short side is up. Lock the shape again.



Select Actions and Duplicate to make a second rectangle. Space the rectangles so that they will act as the two holes in the top right and left of the triangle. Then drag a box around the two rectangles and click Actions and Group to group the two rectangles together. Click Weld (also under Actions) to weld the two rectangles into one image for slicing purposes.



Place the rectangles over the triangle. The Cricut Design Space will automatically help you to position them. Drag a box over the triangle. Click on Actions and Slice.



Move the triangle away from the rectangles and you'll see that you now have cut holes into the triangle.


Select the grouped rectangles and delete them by clicking on the x in the upper left corner.



Drag the triangle to re-size it to the dimensions you want, or enter the width and height manually in the Edit tab.


Depending on how big your sheet of card stock is, duplicate the pennant triangle to fit as many as you can on one sheet. I fit four triangles on an 81/2" by 11" sheet of paper. Then it's time to cut! I alternated five fall colours for my autumn pennant banner.

I once again used Cricut's gold foil adhesive for the banner lettering. It has such a nice sheen to it. I simply entered the word "Autumn" in the Design Space in the iPad system font Optima and sized the letters to fit my triangles. (I isolated the letters and narrowed them a bit). Once the letters were cut, I peeled them individually off the adhesive backing and stuck them on the card stock triangles. (Um, don't use the transfer paper. It rips the light card stock. I know because I did it! Live and learn. Live and learn.)

Check out the other fun adhesive materials and products at Cricut.com,

If you want to make a fall banner, or any other banner for that matter (just use different card stock!), here's a handy title image you can pin for later: (Or just make this quick diy now, okay?)


I'm going to work on another very similar banner for Christmas. Even though I have a hundred Christmas garlands. Okay, not a hundred but several. My niece told her mother that our fall decorations are "moreish," which sounds kind of flattering. So I plan to make them a Christmas garland too.

DIY Christmas Garlands To Try

Here are the DIY Christmas garlands I have made so far. All of them are fun for children to get involved with too. Depending on their ages, they can perform various functions, even if it's just washing the lemons and oranges for the citrus garland. Older kids who can handle a pom pom maker will love making the pom pom garland.

Dried Orange & Lemon Garland (for a natural look)
Loom Knit Holiday Garland
Festive Pom Pom Garland
Gift Tag Ribbon Garland

See, I told you I like Christmas garlands! Where am I going to hang them all? And while you are decorating for fall and winter, be sure to make a log centerpiece with tea light candles and faux florals. It's just the thing to accent a Thanksgiving or Christmas table.


Do you say "fall" or "autumn" or both? Do you like garlands? Have you made any DIY garlands?