Free shadow box template

Butterfly garden shadow box SVG

Butterflies over a summer border: sunflowers and tulips at the back, tall daisies in the middle, and grass and wildflowers 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.

Butterfly garden shadow box: 5 layered sheets seen from the front

Download the SVG files

5 sheets at 8 × 10 in, 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 “Forest green” set; cut them in any card you like.

Sheet	What is on it	Narrowest part	Seen from the front
1. Sun	A whole sheet with holes for: Plain disc	over 2 mm	23%
2. Far butterflies and hedge	Rolling ground, with: Butterfly silhouette, Simple butterfly with teardrop wings, Round tree silhouette and Oak tree with a broad crown	0.8 mm	8%
3. Sunflowers	Rolling ground, with: Sunflower with stem and leaves, Three sunflowers on stems, Sunflower silhouette and Monarch butterfly	1 mm	18%
4. Tulips and daisies	Rolling ground, with: Three spring tulips, Two daisies in silhouette, Tulip with stem and two leaves, Daisy with stem and leaves and Swallowtail butterfly silhouette	0.8 mm	16%
5. Grass and wildflowers	A gentle slope, with: Three wildflowers on stems, Grass with flowers, Grass silhouette and Flower silhouette with stem	1.1 mm	32%

Measured from the files at 8 × 10 in. 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 8 × 10 in. 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
8 × 10 in	203.2 × 254 mm	0.8 mm	17 mm	Yes	Fine detail: sharp blade, slow speed

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

Making this one

Cut the butterflies’ sheets in a bright colour that differs from the flowers and they lift off the background. Curl the wings forward a little before you stack the sheets and they cast real shadows.

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 use real pressed flowers with it?

Yes. Leave out the back sheet’s holes, glue pressed flowers to it and let the card flowers frame them.

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