Free shadow box template

Pumpkin harvest shadow box SVG

Eight pumpkins heaped up at harvest time, none of them carved: a low sun and two clouds, two trees on the far hill, a tall pumpkin between a sheaf of wheat and a sunflower, a round pumpkin and a flat one in front of it, and at the front a big pumpkin with a leaf and a curling tendril, a plain one at one side of it and three small ones at the other. 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.

Pumpkin harvest shadow box: 5 layered sheets seen from the front

Download the SVG files

5 sheets at 10 × 8 in, landscape, 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 “Autumn” set; cut them in any card you like. Cut sheet 5, “Front pumpkins”, the slowest: at 1 mm it has the thinnest part in the scene, and sheet 5, “Front pumpkins”, fills the most of the view, 33% of it.

Sheet	What is on it	Narrowest part	Seen from the front
1. Sun and clouds	A whole sheet with holes for: Plain disc, Long flat cloud and Fluffy cloud	over 2 mm	31%
2. Far trees	Rolling ground, with: Oak tree with a broad crown and Round tree silhouette	over 2 mm	7%
3. Tall pumpkin and sheaf	Rolling ground, with: Wheat sheaf, Tall pumpkin and Sunflower silhouette	1.4 mm	13%
4. Middle pumpkins	Rolling ground, with: Classic round pumpkin and Squat fairytale pumpkin	2 mm	13%
5. Front pumpkins	A gentle slope, with: Pumpkin silhouette with a curly vine, Pumpkin with vine and leaf and Three pumpkins in a row	1 mm	33%

Measured from the files at 10 × 8 in, landscape. 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 10 × 8 in, landscape. 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
10 × 8 in, landscape	254 × 203.2 mm	1 mm	17 mm	Yes	Cuts easily

Depth needed allows 3 mm of foam between sheets and 5 mm for the card itself and the backing.

Making this one

The pumpkins are plain shapes with their ribs cut as slits, in the manner of a paper cut: the sheet behind shows through each slit as a line of lighter colour. The four large ones are 5 to 7.5 cm tall at 10 by 8 inches. On the two middle pumpkins the card between the slits is 2 mm or more. The sheaf of wheat is the fine cutting of its sheet, at about 1.4 mm, and the three small pumpkins at the front are about 1 mm. With a craft knife, cut the slits first, each from its middle towards its ends, and the outline of the pumpkin last. Nothing hangs on a thread. Cut it in the Autumn colours as shown, from cream to dark brown, or cut the three pumpkin sheets in orange card, pale to deep.

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 cut it by hand?

Yes. It suits a craft knife: five sheets, large shapes and long gentle curves. Only the sheaf of wheat, at about 1.4 mm, and the three small pumpkins at the front, at about 1 mm, are fine cutting. Print each sheet at full size, tape it over the card and cut through both.

Can I give the pumpkins faces?

Yes, in the maker. Select a pumpkin, choose Swap and pick one of the five carved pumpkins under Flowers and plants. For a scene made of carved ones, see the Row of jack-o-lanterns scene.

How is this different from the other pumpkin scenes?

Here the pumpkins fill the picture, on a wide sheet, and none is carved. The Pumpkin patch scene is square, with a scarecrow in the corn and smaller pumpkins in front of him, and the Pumpkins on the porch scene has them on the steps of a front door.

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