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Birds on a wire shadow box SVG

Ten birds on two wires at sunset: a huge low sun, far hills with trees, five birds on the far wire, five slightly larger ones on the near wire with the sun behind them, and a house at each side with grass between them at the front. 5 sheets of card, cut and stacked with a gap between each, make the picture. The files are free, and every part of the scene can be moved, swapped or resized below before you download.

Birds on a wire shadow box: 5 layered sheets seen from the front

Download the SVG files

5 sheets at 10 × 8 in, landscape, zipped, with a note on putting them together.

Free for personal and commercial use, no sign-up. What you can do with it.

The 5 sheets

Sheet 1 is the back and sheet 5 is the front. Each one is a single piece with the same frame round its edge, so they line up when stacked. The colours shown are the “Sunset” set; cut them in any card you like. Cut sheet 5, “Houses and grass”, the slowest: at 1.1 mm it has the thinnest part in the scene, and sheet 5, “Houses and grass”, fills the most of the view, 26% of it.

Sheet	What is on it	Narrowest part	Seen from the front
1. Sun	A whole sheet with holes for: Plain disc	over 2 mm	31%
2. Far hills	Rolling ground, with: Three trees and Round tree silhouette	1.9 mm	5%
3. Far wire	Rolling ground, with: Birds on a wire	over 2 mm	15%
4. Near wire	Rolling ground, with: Birds on a wire	over 2 mm	14%
5. Houses and grass	A gentle slope, with: House silhouette, House with a chimney and Bunch of grass	1.1 mm	26%

Measured from the files at 10 × 8 in, landscape. The narrowest part is the thinnest neck of card that holds anything on; sharp tips are not counted. “Seen from the front” is the share of the picture that sheet fills once the sheets in front of it are in place.

Will it cut at your size?

The download is 10 × 8 in, landscape. The scene maker above makes the same scene at any of these sizes; the thinnest part scales with it.

Frame opening	Each sheet	Narrowest part	Depth needed	Fits a 12 × 12 in mat	Rule of thumb
10 × 8 in, landscape	254 × 203.2 mm	1.1 mm	17 mm	Yes	Cuts easily

Depth needed allows 3 mm of foam between sheets and 5 mm for the card itself and the backing.

Making this one

Each wire is one piece with five birds on it, and it runs into the frame at both ends, so nothing hangs on a thread. The birds are plain silhouettes with an eye cut through, and neither wire has anything under 2 mm at 10 by 8 inches, which makes this one of the easier scenes to cut. The sun is one hole in the back sheet, about 11 cm across, placed so that the birds on the near wire show dark against it. The houses at the front are about 1.1 mm at their finest, with their windows cut through. Cut it in the Sunset colours as shown, or cut both wires in black.

Cut all 5 sheets from 160 to 220 gsm card at the same size.
Lay them out in order, sheet 1 at the back.
Put strips of 3 mm foam tape round the border of sheet 1 and press sheet 2 onto it with the edges level. Carry on to sheet 5.
Fit the stack into a deep frame with the front sheet against the glass. For a light box, run a strip of warm white LEDs round the inside of the frame behind the stack.

The zip includes these steps as a text file, each sheet as its own SVG and all 5 side by side in one SVG. More on paper, frames and lights is on the shadow box page.

The parts, on their own

Everything in the scene comes from the free SVG library, where each has its own page and file:

Questions

Can I have a different number of birds?

The five birds and their wire are one shape, so each wire comes as it is. To have fewer birds, remove one of the two wire sheets in the maker. To have more, select a wire, choose Copy and move the copy up or down.

Is there a scene with birds in flight?

Yes. The Swallows at sunset scene has swallows wheeling over a meadow, and the Garden birds scene has songbirds on a branch, a fence and a birdhouse.

Can I sell boxes I make with it?

Yes. Finished pieces are yours to sell. The files themselves may not be sold or shared; send people to this page. See the licence.

More shadow box scenes

All scenes and the scene maker