Free shadow box template

Snowman in the garden shadow box SVG

A snowman in a bobble hat and scarf in a snowy garden at night, with a little snowman beside him: a full moon and falling snow, far firs, a cottage with smoke from its chimney, a picket fence and a fir tree, and a sledge in the drift 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.

Snowman in the garden 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 “Snow” set; cut them in any card you like. Cut sheet 2, “Far firs”, the slowest: at 0.7 mm it has the thinnest part in the scene, and sheet 6, “Sledge and drift”, fills the most of the view, 24% of it.

Sheet	What is on it	Narrowest part	Seen from the front
1. Moon and snow	A whole sheet with holes for: 8 × Plain disc, Simple chunky snowflake and Koch snowflake	0.8 mm	31%
2. Far firs	Rolling ground, with: Three Christmas trees in a row and Pine forest on a hill	0.7 mm	7%
3. Cottage	Rolling ground, with: Cute house with a scalloped roof and Classic pine tree	1.3 mm	13%
4. Snowmen	Rolling ground, with: Snowman with a bobble hat and Cute little snowman	0.9 mm	13%
5. Fence and fir	Rolling ground, with: Picket fence with pointed tops and Classic three-tier Christmas tree	over 2 mm	10%
6. Sledge and drift	A gentle slope, with: Christmas sleigh with curled runners, Simple pine tree and Bunch of grass	1.2 mm	24%

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

In the Snow colours the back sheet is dark blue and every other sheet is white or pale blue, so the shadows between the sheets do the work. The moon and the snowflakes are holes in the back sheet, which is about 0.8 mm at its narrowest, round the snowflakes. The far firs are the fine cutting, at about 0.7 mm at 8 inches, and the sheet with the two snowmen comes next, at about 0.9 mm. 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.