I have tried carving Baltic Birch before and was not happy but,,,,, I don't like to waste wood and these pieces were the middle of the frame I just built wife's butterfly out of.

  So I thought I would add a few pieces of carving and a few gallons of spray and see what turns out....

I am not crowding the area with a lot of carving just to see how it compares to things I have done so far...I drew this up yesterday and cut it out this morning.

  Maybe more later but ?

same day and almost through carving and I think I will leave the wood ruff just add some sort of coloring.

 Lost a small piece here and there but hey, thats part of life.

  None of this was drawn up on paper first. Just look at the bottom area and you will see how good my eye sight is. The carving on the left bottom is toughing the end where the other side missed a little.

Beautiful work

Now I have the monarch to work with also

Great start Jess.  Beautiful monarch, is it close to 30" wide also?

19" I think and with the frame maybe 22"?