How to make layered paper art, by machine or by hand

Layered paper art is a picture made of several sheets of paper or card, each cut with one part of a scene and stacked with a gap between them. Seen from the front, each sheet shows through the openings of the one before it. The gaps make it three-dimensional: nearer sheets cast shadows on farther ones, and the picture shifts a little as you walk past.

It is also called 3D paper art, layered paper cutting or a paper shadow box, and when a light is put behind it, a paper cut light box.

How the sheets make a picture

Think of a stage set. The back sheet is the sky. In front of it comes the most distant thing, a mountain range perhaps; then hills; then trees; then whatever stands at the front. Each sheet is mostly empty, with a band of ground along the bottom and the things that stand on it.

Three rules keep it buildable:

1. Every sheet has the same border. A frame round the edge of each one keeps the sheets the same size, so they line up, and gives the spacers something to stick to.
2. Everything on a sheet is joined to it. A tree grows from the ground band; a bird has to touch a branch, the border or a thin thread of paper. Anything floating free falls out when the sheet is cut.
3. Each sheet must still be seen. A sheet that sits wholly behind the one in front is wasted. Lower the ground a little on each sheet as you come forward, so every layer shows above the next.

The shadow box maker on this site applies all three for you: it keeps standing parts rooted in their ground, hangs anything in the air on a thread, and tells you if a sheet has gone out of sight.

How many sheets

Five to seven. With three or four the picture reads as flat paper shapes. Past eight, the back sheets are hard to see and the frame has to be very deep. A good split is one sky, two of distance, two or three of middle ground and one front.

Colour and depth

Depth in a landscape comes from things getting paler and bluer with distance. Do the same with card: palest at the back, darkest at the front, in one family of colour. Five blues from sky to navy will always look right.

The other way is to use white card for every sheet and let light do the work. With a lamp behind, the back sheets glow and the front ones go dark, which gives the same pale-to-dark run with no colour at all.

Look	Back sheets	Front sheets	Light
Dusk landscape	Cream sky, pale blue	Navy	None needed
Sunset	Pale yellow, peach	Plum or dark brown	None needed
Snow scene	Dark blue sky, then white	Pale grey-blue	None needed
Light box	White throughout	White throughout	Warm white LEDs behind

Paper

Card of 160 to 220 gsm is the usual choice. Lighter paper sags between its supports; heavier card is hard to cut finely and adds up to a thick stack. Smooth card cuts cleaner than textured. For a light box, plain white card with no coating lets the most light through.

Cutting by machine

A cutting machine (Cricut, Silhouette, ScanNCut) or a laser cuts each sheet from a file. You need one file per sheet, all the same size. The Cricut guide goes through it step by step. The points that matter on any machine: use a sharp blade, a mat that is not too sticky, and peel the mat away from the card, not the card from the mat.

Cutting by hand

It can be done with a scalpel or a craft knife, and many people prefer it.

1. Print each sheet’s outline on the back of its card, mirrored, so no print shows on the front. A scene with a clear left and right will otherwise come out reversed.
2. Cut on a self-healing mat with a fresh blade. Change the blade often: card blunts a tip in one sheet.
3. Cut the small inside shapes first and the long outer edges last, so the sheet stays stiff while you work.
4. Turn the card, not your hand, and pull the blade towards you.

Choose a simple scene for a first try: broad hills, solid trees and animals with thick legs. Fine antlers and window panes are easier on a machine.

Stacking

Stick foam tape or strips of foam board, 3 to 5 mm thick, round the border of the back sheet, press the next sheet onto it with the edges level, and carry on to the front. Put a short piece of foam behind anything large in the middle of a sheet so it does not droop.

The stack then goes into a deep frame. Allow 3 mm for each gap and 5 mm over: six sheets need about 20 mm of depth.

A scene to start from

Every scene on this site is free and comes as one SVG per sheet. The forest deer and the mountain lake have little fine cutting and make good first projects. Each can be changed in the maker before you download: move things, swap them, and pick the frame size.