Take It Easel at Christmas

I made the card I have to show you today for my blog friend and Here Come The Boys challenge host Woo.  I still have a couple of Christmas cards left to show you, but it will be over soon, I promise!  Well for this year anyway, lol.

The photo was a little dark, but as the card left for England some time ago I can't very well take any more pics... I've upped the exposure in Photoshop to lighten it but that has "flattened" it a bit :-( oh well, you get that!
Obviously it's an easel card, I just like them and as Some Odd Girl has Easel cards as their theme I've entered there.  Totally Gorjuss has For Someone Special as it's theme this time, Woo's pretty special - a thoroughly nice person - and so I've chosen this card to enter there. 
The little bear (is he not the cutest?) is Louie, he comes in various guises from Digistamp Boutique.  To enter their challenge all you have to do is use one of their images, no problem at all with images like this available, so I'm in there too.  Ready Teddy Go has Anything Goes for their challenge, as long as you use a bear; I have, I'm in!  Crazy 4 Challenges has "It's Santa", I think Louie with his little Santa hat fits the bill nicely.
The image is coloured with Prismacolor pencils, I don't have a huge range which makes shading a bit more of a challenge than Copics, but I love the soft finish, and am prepared to spend the extra time for my "special" cards, for "special" people :-) There's Sparkly Fluff on his fur trim, and Stickles on the snow too.
I've used paper from my stash, it's a shame you can't really see the glitter on the green mats, it gave it a nice lift.  The white background is embossed with Cuttlebug's Ice Crystals folder with some very light inking around the edge to soften it.  Addicted to Stamps has Snowflakes as its theme, so I'm entering there.
The sentiment is computer generated, I'll have a copy of it for you on my freebie page (eventually, can't find it on my computer!) if you'd like to grab it.  It simply says Seasons Greetings from Our House to Yours.
I cut the red mat behind the image with Nestabilities Lacey Circles die and the image panel cut and embossed with Standard Circles Nesties, the sentiment panel is mounted on a mat cut with a Scalloped Circle Nesties. The red strip used as a stopper for the easel is punched with Fiskars Apron Lace punch, it matches the Lacey Circles nicely. Pollycraft has Punch It as it's theme, so I'm entering their challenge.

Cupcake Inspirations has this Photo Inspiration, the lovely Traditional colours of Christmas always inspire me - even though I try to be all modern and aqua my natural choice is the red and green, lol.  Paper Crafting Journey  Bizzy Becs,  Copic Oz, and Paper Play Challenges all have Christmas challenges running, so I'm entering there too.
The charm is from my stash...though Woo has sent me a ton of charms, well not literally a "ton", who could afford the post, lol, this isn't one of them!  I got it years ago to decorate a fabergé egg (which I will put pics up of one day) and ended up using gold trim instead.  I do that sort of thing a lot, so I have a VAST stash of "bits". 
Well, that's it for today, I'll be back with yet more Christmas cards in a few days - but at least I do have a couple of birthday cards and a baby card finished and ready to post-up as well; I tell ya, I's been busy!
I've just got to wrap ALL the presents I've bought, finish making the seven dozen truffles (I decorate them to look like little Christmas puddings) I've half done - yeah, I've been told, once again I've mixed up my aspirations with my abilities! do the final accounts for the couple of businesses I do paperwork for (we're all having a couple of weeks off, yay!), do the food shopping for Christmas (yup, at our house this year), take the trailer to the panel beaters - a drunk driver smashed into it when my hubby was working two weeks ago - his reading was .19 at 1pm...must have had a very early start :-O , and fit in some overdue spring cleaning by Sunday.  Oh well, there's time for resting when you're DEAD, lol.
Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna...and Louie of course!