Free shadow box template

Old oak on the hill shadow box SVG

An old oak alone on a hilltop with the evening sun behind it: far hills with a few small trees, the oak cut on two sheets so that its crown has a back and a front, a sheep, her lamb and an old fence on the slope below, and grass and wild flowers at the foot. 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.

Old oak on the hill shadow box: 6 layered sheets seen from the front

Download the SVG files

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 “Sunset” set; cut them in any card you like. Cut sheet 6, “Grass”, the slowest: at 0.7 mm it has the thinnest part in the scene, and sheet 6, “Grass”, fills the most of the view, 25% 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	21%
2. Far hills	Rolling ground, with: Three trees and Round tree silhouette	1.9 mm	9%
3. Oak, back of the crown	Rolling ground, with: Oak tree with a broad crown	over 2 mm	13%
4. Oak, front of the crown	Rolling ground, with: Oak tree with a broad crown	over 2 mm	20%
5. Sheep and fence	Rolling ground, with: Sheep silhouette, Lamb standing, a young sheep and Rustic fence with a loose board	0.8 mm	11%
6. Grass	A gentle slope, with: Grass with flowers, Bunch of grass and Wild grass with seed heads	0.7 mm	25%

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 tree is on two sheets. The third sheet has the whole oak a little larger, and the fourth has it again a little smaller and lower, so the back of the crown shows round the front like a rim of lighter leaves. Cut the two in two shades of one colour. Both oaks are bold shapes with nothing under 2 mm at 8 inches. The fence and the lamb on the fifth sheet are about 0.8 mm at their thinnest and the grass at the front about 0.7 mm, so cut those two sheets slowly. Nothing hangs on a thread.

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

Why is the oak cut twice?

For depth. A shadow box is a stack of flat sheets with a gap between each, so one tree on one sheet looks flat. With the crown on two sheets the front one casts a shadow on the back one, and the tree looks round.

Can I use another tree?

Yes. Select each oak in the maker and choose Swap: a round tree, a willow, a bare winter tree and a blossom tree are under Trees. Swap both sheets to the same tree so that the two crowns still match.

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

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