Friendly ghosts shadow box SVG
Six friendly ghosts out under a full moon: the moon and a few stars, bare trees and old gravestones on the far hill, two ghosts flying across the moon, one big ghost with its arms out, a round ghost and a tall one in front of it, and a carved pumpkin beside a bare tree at the front. 6 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.
6 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 6 sheets
Sheet 1 is the back and sheet 6 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 “Halloween night” set; cut them in any card you like. Cut sheet 4, “Big ghost”, the slowest: at 0.7 mm it has the thinnest part in the scene, and sheet 6, “Pumpkin and bare tree”, fills the most of the view, 26% of it.
| Sheet | What is on it | Narrowest part | Seen from the front |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Moon | A whole sheet with holes for: 5 × Plain disc | over 2 mm | 20% |
| 2. Far trees and graves | Rolling ground, with: Bare tree with even branches, Three tombstones in a row and Winter tree | 0.9 mm | 6% |
| 3. Flying ghosts | Rolling ground, with: Swooping ghost, Floating ghost with a tail and Tombstone with a stone cross | 1.4 mm | 9% |
| 4. Big ghost | Rolling ground, with: Classic sheet ghost and Gothic tombstone with a pointed top | 0.7 mm | 16% |
| 5. Little ghosts | Rolling ground, with: Chubby happy ghost and Tall draped sheet ghost | over 2 mm | 13% |
| 6. Pumpkin and bare tree | A gentle slope, with: Jack-o-lantern with a toothy grin, Bare tree with even branches and Bunch of grass | 1.1 mm | 26% |
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 | 20 mm | Yes | Too fine: choose a larger size |
| 20 × 20 cm | 200 × 200 mm | 0.7 mm | 20 mm | Yes | Fine detail: sharp blade, slow speed |
| 8 × 8 in | 203.2 × 203.2 mm | 0.7 mm | 20 mm | Yes | Fine detail: sharp blade, slow speed |
| 23 × 23 cm | 230 × 230 mm | 0.8 mm | 20 mm | Yes | Fine detail: sharp blade, slow speed |
| 25 × 25 cm | 250 × 250 mm | 0.9 mm | 20 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 big ghost is about 8 cm high at 8 inches and the two in front of it about 4 and 5 cm, so this is a scene of large, plain shapes: the eyes and mouths are cut through and the paler sheet behind shows in them. Two ghosts hang from the frame on a strip of card each, which reads as a ghost floating once the box is closed. The sheet with the big ghost is the fine cutting, at about 0.7 mm, because of the small gravestone beside it. The far trees are about 0.9 mm and the pumpkin sheet about 1.1 mm. In the Halloween night colours the ghosts are purple against an orange sky. For white ghosts, cut the three ghost sheets in white or pale grey card and keep the back sheet orange or black.
- Cut all 6 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 6.
- 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 6 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 children help to make it?
Yes, with the gluing and stacking. The ghosts are simple shapes that a cutting machine handles easily, and the sheets go into the frame in order, from the moon at the back to the pumpkin at the front, with strips of foam board between them. Keep the craft knife for an adult.
How is this different from the other Halloween scenes?
Here the ghosts are the subject and they are smiling. The Haunted house scene has a crooked house on a hill with bats, the Trick or treat scene three trick-or-treaters walking up to the houses, and the Zombie graveyard scene is the frightening one.
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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