Free shadow box template

Haunted house shadow box SVG

A crooked house on a hill under a huge moon, with bats across the sky, bare trees, a graveyard and pumpkins at the gate. 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.

Haunted house 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 “Halloween night” set; cut them in any card you like.

Sheet	What is on it	Narrowest part	Seen from the front
1. Moon	A whole sheet with holes for: Plain disc	over 2 mm	29%
2. Bats and far hill	Rolling ground, with: Wide bat for banners, Classic bat with spread wings, Gliding bat with wings swept down, Bare tree with even branches and Winter tree	1.1 mm	8%
3. House on the hill	Rolling ground, with: Haunted house on a hill and Bare tree with even branches	1.3 mm	12%
4. Graveyard	Rolling ground, with: Graveyard with tombstones and a tree, Tombstone with a stone cross, Tombstone with a crack and Winter tree	0.8 mm	10%
5. Gate and pumpkins	A gentle slope, with: Haunted house gate, Jack-o-lantern with a toothy grin and Pumpkin silhouette with a curly vine	0.6 mm	31%

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

Black card at the front and orange at the back gives the strongest silhouette without any light. The bare trees have thin twigs: cut them at 8 inches or larger.

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

How are the bats held in place?

Each hangs from the top of its sheet on a thread of card 1.6 mm wide, which disappears against the dark sky when the box is closed.

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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