Thanks for the tips. Here's the gift piece I just designed and finished cutting out. https://imgur.com/a/xM8v7rQ The piece came out "fluffy", and most of the vertical surfaces are pretty rough. This is the bit I'm using: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015C61XX4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'd like to try to make it look something similar to yours with the stain, I really like how the dark and light areas pop. I see a lot of hand sanding in my future...