Intarsia is pretty popular in US, a low cost woodcraft hobby.

The only machine tool you need is a scroll saw, $100 is more than enough to buy a decent one. You can order all kind of thin, surfaced woodstocks from many mail order stores. They sell both woods and patterns.

I start to use CNC (computer numerical control) machine to carve wood directly. For instance, take a picture of a person's face, and turn it to gcode, load it to computer and carve the face in wood. It's just for fun.