Free shadow box template

Woodland clearing shadow box SVG

Woodland animals in a clearing with the sun low behind the trees: far trees on the hill, a doe and her fawn between two birches, a fox sitting below an owl on its branch with a big oak at the side, a rabbit, a squirrel with an acorn and a hedgehog, and ferns, toadstools and flowers 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.

Woodland clearing shadow box: 6 layered sheets seen from the front

Download the SVG files

6 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 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 “Forest green” set; cut them in any card you like. Cut sheet 5, “Rabbit, squirrel and hedgehog”, the slowest: at 0.8 mm it has the thinnest part in the scene, and sheet 6, “Ferns and toadstools”, fills the most of the view, 22% of it.

Sheet	What is on it	Narrowest part	Seen from the front
1. Sun	A whole sheet with holes for: Plain disc	over 2 mm	23%
2. Far trees	Rolling ground, with: Three trees, Round tree silhouette and Oak tree with a broad crown	over 2 mm	8%
3. Deer and birches	Rolling ground, with: Doe deer standing, Fawn deer with spots, Birch tree in leaf and Birch tree silhouette	1.3 mm	14%
4. Fox, oak and owl	Rolling ground, with: Sitting fox, Oak tree with a broad crown and Owl on a branch	0.9 mm	20%
5. Rabbit, squirrel and hedgehog	Rolling ground, with: Bunny rabbit sitting up, Squirrel with an acorn and Hedgehog with spines	0.8 mm	7%
6. Ferns and toadstools	A gentle slope, with: 2 × Fern silhouette, Three mushrooms and Grass with flowers	0.8 mm	22%

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	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

A wide scene for a landscape frame, with seven animals on three sheets. The owl sits on a branch that grows in from the frame, so nothing hangs on a thread. The doe, the fawn and the birches are about 1.3 mm at their thinnest at 10 by 8 inches. The sheet with the fox and the owl is about 0.9 mm, and the two front sheets are the fine cutting, at about 0.8 mm: the rabbit, the squirrel and the hedgehog, then the ferns and the flowers. Cut it in greens, or choose the Autumn colours for a wood in October.

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.