Free shadow box template

Stag in the birch wood shadow box SVG

A stag standing between birch trunks on a winter night, with a doe and a fawn near him: a full moon and a few flakes of snow, a stand of five birch trunks that run up out of sight, the doe on the far rise, the stag in the middle with the moon behind him, a bare weeping birch at one side and the fawn at the other, and a rabbit and a small fir 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.

Stag in the birch wood shadow box: 6 layered sheets seen from the front

Download the SVG files

6 sheets at 8 × 10 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 “Blue dusk” set; cut them in any card you like. Cut sheet 6, “Snow drift”, the slowest: at 1.8 mm it has the thinnest part in the scene, and sheet 6, “Snow drift”, fills the most of the view, 26% of it.

Sheet	What is on it	Narrowest part	Seen from the front
1. Moon and snow	A whole sheet with holes for: 7 × Plain disc	over 2 mm	11%
2. Far birches	Rolling ground, with: Birch trees, a stand of five trunks	over 2 mm	19%
3. Doe	Rolling ground, with: Doe deer standing	over 2 mm	8%
4. Stag	Rolling ground, with: Buck deer standing	2 mm	11%
5. Near birch and fawn	Rolling ground, with: Birch tree in winter and Fawn deer with spots	1.9 mm	16%
6. Snow drift	A gentle slope, with: Bunny rabbit sitting up, Bunch of grass and Simple pine tree	1.8 mm	26%

Measured from the files at 8 × 10 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 × 10 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
8 × 10 in	203.2 × 254 mm	1.8 mm	20 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

Made to be cut by hand as well as by machine: nothing in the scene is under about 1.8 mm at 8 by 10 inches. The five far trunks are one piece that stands in a bank of snow and runs off the top of the frame, with the bark marks cut through and thin branches linking the trunks. The stag is about 10 cm tall and 2 mm at his finest, and the spots of the fawn are cut through. With a craft knife, cut the bark marks and the spots first and the long edges of the trunks last. In the Blue dusk colours the trunks are pale blue and the stag a shade darker. For snow by night, choose the Snow colours: the back sheet turns dark blue and the trunks white. 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

How is this different from the Forest deer scene?

The Forest deer scene is square, with a stag on a hill among pines and far mountains. This one is upright, in a birch wood in winter, with the trunks running the full height of the frame and a doe and a fawn beside the stag. For an elk, see the Elk in the moonlit forest scene.

Can I cut it by hand?

Yes. There are six sheets, every shape is a plain silhouette and nothing is under about 1.8 mm. Print each sheet at full size, tape it over the card and cut through both.

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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