Free shadow box template

Christmas bauble village shadow box SVG

A snowy village seen through a round window, like the scene inside a glass bauble: snow falling from a dark sky, far firs, a chapel with its bell, a cottage and a Christmas tree with a star, and at the front a street lamp, a pile of presents and a bough of fir with a bauble of its own. 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.

Christmas bauble village shadow box: 5 layered sheets seen from the front

Download the SVG files

5 sheets at 8 × 8 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 “Snow” set; cut them in any card you like. Cut sheet 2, “Far firs”, the slowest: at 0.7 mm it has the thinnest part in the scene, and sheet 5, “Fir bough and drift”, fills the most of the view, 46% of it.

Sheet	What is on it	Narrowest part	Seen from the front
1. Snow	A whole sheet with holes for: Simple chunky snowflake, Koch snowflake and 8 × Plain disc	0.8 mm	28%
2. Far firs	Rolling ground, with: Three Christmas trees in a row and Pine forest on a hill	0.7 mm	7%
3. Chapel	Rolling ground, with: Chapel church house with a bell	2 mm	7%
4. Cottage and tree	Rolling ground, with: Cute house with a scalloped roof and Christmas tree with a star on top	0.9 mm	11%
5. Fir bough and drift	A gentle slope, with: Fir branch with a hanging bauble, Lantern on a lamp post and Stack of three presents	0.9 mm	46%

Measured from the files at 8 × 8 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 × 8 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
6 × 6 in	152.4 × 152.4 mm	0.5 mm	17 mm	Yes	Too fine: choose a larger size
20 × 20 cm	200 × 200 mm	0.7 mm	17 mm	Yes	Fine detail: sharp blade, slow speed
8 × 8 in	203.2 × 203.2 mm	0.7 mm	17 mm	Yes	Fine detail: sharp blade, slow speed
23 × 23 cm	230 × 230 mm	0.8 mm	17 mm	Yes	Fine detail: sharp blade, slow speed
25 × 25 cm	250 × 250 mm	0.9 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

The round window is what makes it a bauble: every sheet but the back one has the same circle cut in it, so the stack reads as a glass ball with the village inside. It is a picture for a deep square frame, not an ornament to hang on the tree. In the Snow colours the back sheet is dark blue and the rest are whites and pale blues. The far firs are the fine cutting, at about 0.7 mm at 8 inches, with the snowflakes in the back sheet at about 0.8 mm and the cottage, the lamp and the presents at about 0.9 mm. The bough of fir grows in from the frame, so nothing hangs on a thread.

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 make it small enough to hang on the tree?

No. At 6 inches the far firs are already too fine to cut, and the sheets need a frame to hold them apart. For ornaments to hang, see the ornament designs in the library.

Can I have a square window?

Yes. Choose the rounded or the square window in the maker, then move the bough of fir until it touches the frame again. The check tells you if it does not.

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.

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