Starry night sky shadow box SVG
A night sky full of stars over quiet hills: a crescent moon, a shooting star, a bright north star and more than twenty small stars cut in the back sheet, far hills, a ridge with pines, a bare tree and a log cabin with smoke from its chimney, and grass at the front. 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.
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 “Snow” set; cut them in any card you like. Cut sheet 3, “Hills and pines”, the slowest: at 0.8 mm it has the thinnest part in the scene, and sheet 5, “Grass”, fills the most of the view, 23% of it.
| Sheet | What is on it | Narrowest part | Seen from the front |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Moon and stars | A whole sheet with holes for: Crescent moon, Shooting star, North star, 2 × Four-pointed sparkle, Rounded star and 18 × Plain disc | over 2 mm | 48% |
| 2. Far hills | Rolling ground | over 2 mm | 5% |
| 3. Hills and pines | Rolling ground, with: Pine forest on a hill and Three pine trees | 0.8 mm | 9% |
| 4. Cottage and tree | Rolling ground, with: Bare tree with even branches and Log cabin house in the pines | 0.9 mm | 13% |
| 5. Grass | A gentle slope, with: Bunch of grass, Wild grass with seed heads and Grass silhouette | 0.9 mm | 23% |
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 | 0.8 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
In the Snow colours the back sheet is dark blue and the hills are white and pale blue, like snow by moonlight, so the sky reads as night without a light. The moon, the shooting star and every other star are holes in the back sheet: put a light, or a sheet of white or gold paper, behind them. The back sheet has nothing under 2 mm, even in the tail of the shooting star. The pines on the third sheet are the fine cutting, at about 0.8 mm at 10 by 8 inches, and the cabin and the grass are about 0.9 mm. Nothing hangs on a thread.
- 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
Are these real constellations?
No. The stars are placed for the look of the picture and do not show any constellation.
Can I add more stars?
Yes. Select the back sheet in the maker and add a star or a plain disc from Sky, then make it small. Keep each new star clear of the others, so that the card between two holes does not get too thin. The check tells you if it does.
Can I use it as a light box?
Yes. Cut every sheet in white card and fix a string of warm white battery lights round the inside of the frame behind the back sheet. The moon and the stars light up, and each sheet in front of them is a shade darker than the last.
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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