I am planning my son's 1st birthday party and I want to make a barn yard cake complete with animals and tractor's. I need suggestions for the barn. I'm planning a 3-D barn cake, and I'm wondering if I should ice it in my standard buttercream, or if could make it look more realistic with layered strips of fondant for the sides? Has any one tried anything like this? Or do you have any creative suggestions?

If he wasn't so little I would tell you to use red gum, I did years ago on a gingerbread barn. I've been wanting to make a 3d barn out of cake but haven't had a reason.
I would think that fondant or buttercream would work, for the buttercream you could use one of the basketweave type tips, alot of them have a smooth side.

There is a really cute cake here on this page!!

www.cindascreativecakes.com/home/home.htm
click on gallery then on baby showers. It should be on the top row!!

another thing you could use if youre looking for some type of a brown shingling effect is cinnamon toast crunch cereal.....I use it for shingles on gingerbread houses and it looks great, has the sandy texture of sand paper from the cinnamon and sugar.......I made a barnyard cake.....it's really simple though...I think you sound like you're looking for something a little bit nicer than mine....mine was just graham crackers stuck together with royal.......I'll attatch it for ya....maybe it will give you some ideas or inspiration if nothing else.........I made this before I knew anything about MAKING your own icing LOL

oh also.......if you ice the sides of your barn in icing.......you could always drag one of those cake combs through it......they give a nice layered kind of siding effect.......hard to describe but it just puts grooves ...like lines in the side...but I've seen people do this on treasure chest cakes and it really gives the look of wooden slats......you could just take a small spatula and every once in a while put a line marking the end of one board and the beginning of the next...otherwise it would just look like big lines on the side.....hard to e xplain hopefully you know what I mean!

If you are using the house pan, the basket weave tip does a really good job of making planks. i did one with a cabin for christmas

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules/coppermine/albums/userpics/20517/normal_CareBearHolidayCake.jpg

I've also found it is easier to decorate the front of the 3D house cake while it's laying flat on it's back. Let it set up a bit, then set it upright and finish decorating the sides and top, etc. GL on your project!

Thanks for all the suggestions. I love this website. I really like the barn cake from the link you provided. I also like the graham craker one. Wouldn't that make a great stable for a nativity scene at Christmas! So many ideas!