Free shadow box template

Trick or treat shadow box SVG

Three trick-or-treaters, a witch, a ghost and a little devil, walking up to the houses on Halloween night, with bats crossing the moon, bare trees on the hill behind the roofs, a street lamp, and a carved pumpkin, a picket fence and more pumpkins 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.

Trick or treat shadow box: 5 layered sheets seen from the front

Download the SVG files

5 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 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 “Halloween night” set; cut them in any card you like. Cut sheet 5, “Pumpkins and fence”, the slowest: at 0.8 mm it has the thinnest part in the scene, and sheet 5, “Pumpkins and fence”, fills the most of the view, 29% of it.

Sheet	What is on it	Narrowest part	Seen from the front
1. Moon	A whole sheet with holes for: 6 × Plain disc	over 2 mm	19%
2. Bats and bare trees	Rolling ground, with: Wide bat for banners, Classic bat with spread wings, Gliding bat with wings swept down, Bare tree with even branches and Winter tree	1.2 mm	8%
3. Houses	Rolling ground, with: Farmhouse with a porch and House with a chimney	1.1 mm	23%
4. Trick-or-treaters	Rolling ground, with: Standing witch silhouette with a besom, Tall draped sheet ghost, Little devil with a pitchfork and Lantern on a lamp post	1.3 mm	14%
5. Pumpkins and fence	A gentle slope, with: Jack-o-lantern with a toothy grin, Picket fence with pointed tops and Three pumpkins in a row	0.8 mm	29%

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	0.6 mm	17 mm	Yes	Fine detail: sharp blade, slow speed
20 × 20 cm	200 × 200 mm	0.8 mm	17 mm	Yes	Fine detail: sharp blade, slow speed
8 × 8 in	203.2 × 203.2 mm	0.8 mm	17 mm	Yes	Fine detail: sharp blade, slow speed
23 × 23 cm	230 × 230 mm	0.9 mm	17 mm	Yes	Fine detail: sharp blade, slow speed
25 × 25 cm	250 × 250 mm	1 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 Halloween night colours the sky is orange, the houses stand dark against it and the three figures walk across the hill below them. The bats hang on threads, which show against an orange sky; cut the back sheet in black card and light the moon from behind if you would rather they vanished. The picket fence on the front sheet is the thinnest card, about 0.8 mm at 8 inches, and the window bars of the houses are about 1.1 mm.

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 change the costumes?

Yes. Select a figure in the maker and choose Swap. A skeleton, a second ghost, a scarecrow and a gnome are all under Figures, and each stands on the same path.

How do the bats stay up?

Each hangs from the top of its sheet on a thread of card 1.6 mm wide. Against a dark back sheet the threads disappear once the box is closed.

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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