Bernadette's Gourd Creations: American Eagle Woodburning

I had this really large bushel gourd for quite a few years now. It's been sitting in grandma's basement ever since I took it from the field. I didn't touch it all this time mainly because an animal made a hole in the bottom and top and the gourd itself was rather lopsided. But it's so big so I wanted to take on the challenge this year. I had lots of ideas on how I wanted to decorate it and at last I decided on a patriotic theme - the American Eagle (or Bald Eagle as it is commonly called, but American Eagle sounds cooler). First thing I did was fix the bottom by attaching a leg to the gourd, fixing both the hole and balance of the gourd. I covered the whole bottom half of the gourd with navy blue tissue paper that I decoupaged. Nice effect I think. I woodburned a large bust of an eagle, an eagle flying, and then because God and patriotism should go together I woodburned a banner with the words "In God We Trust." I also woodburned some eagle feathers and an olive branch with 13 leaves (symbolic of the 13 colonies). Plain woodburning didn't cut it for me so I added some color with ink dye, bright red stripes, and I even embossed some pewter stars along the bottom. Love it! What do you think?

Same view but three different "light saturations." Couldn't decide which to post. :)