Free shadow box template

Dragonfly pond shadow box SVG

Two dragonflies over a lily pond: a pale sun, a willow on the far bank, a dragonfly in the air beside a stand of bulrushes, water lilies on the pond, and at the front a frog on the bank and a second dragonfly settled on a bulrush. 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.

Dragonfly pond 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 “Sea” set; cut them in any card you like. Cut sheet 5, “Frog on the bank”, the slowest: at 0.6 mm it has the thinnest part in the scene, and sheet 5, “Frog on the bank”, fills the most of the view, 33% 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	27%
2. Willow bank	Rolling ground, with: Weeping willow tree and Round tree silhouette	1.2 mm	12%
3. Bulrushes and dragonfly	Waves, with: Pond grass with cattails and Dragonfly silhouette	1.2 mm	13%
4. Water lilies	Waves, with: Lotus with bud and pads and Lotus flower with seven petals	1.1 mm	10%
5. Frog on the bank	A gentle slope, with: Pond grass with cattails, Frog silhouette, Simple dragonfly and Wild grass with seed heads	0.6 mm	33%

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	0.6 mm	17 mm	Yes	Too fine: choose a larger size
8 × 8 in	203.2 × 203.2 mm	0.6 mm	17 mm	Yes	Fine detail: sharp blade, slow speed
23 × 23 cm	230 × 230 mm	0.7 mm	17 mm	Yes	Fine detail: sharp blade, slow speed
25 × 25 cm	250 × 250 mm	0.7 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 dragonfly in the air is about 4 cm long at 8 inches and hangs from the frame on a strip of card. The second one rests on the head of a bulrush and is part of that sheet, so it needs no thread. The willow, the far bulrushes and the water lilies are all about 1.1 to 1.2 mm. The front sheet is the fine cutting, at about 0.6 mm: the wings of the resting dragonfly are outlines, and the bulrush stems are long and slim. Cut that sheet slowly, stems first from the tip downwards, and lift it off the mat from the frame inwards. In the Sea colours the pond runs from pale green to deep blue.

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 just the dragonfly?

Yes. In the maker, select a dragonfly and it can be moved, made larger or swapped. For a dragonfly on its own, as a flat cut file, see the dragonfly SVG files in the library.

How is this different from the other pond scenes?

Here the dragonflies and the frog are the subject. The Koi pond scene has leaping carp, the Swan pond scene swans, and the Ducks over the marsh scene ducks and geese crossing a low sun.

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