Beary Birthday

Even with Christmas approaching there are still birthdays happening (talk abut a hectic time of year for b'days!), and here's a birthday card I made recently for my SIL.  I thought this bear image was just perfect, since it looks like a very relaxed and happy bear.  My SIL seems to have a hectic life always rushing around taking care of everyone around her, so I wanted to wish her some time for herself to relax, and this image from Ildi Co, Cuddles Kuma Morning, seemed just right, plus it's a nice, easy and quick one to colour (yay!).

The main image is coloured with copics, and the background cardstock is SU paper - you can see the swiss dots cuttlebug folder was used as well as one of the floral edgy ones (can't recall name).


The sentiment is a retired SU one from my cupboard, for a set that I paid way too much for on ebay and then never use since it's too intricate to colour easily (argh!) so I'm happy to at least be using the sentiment!  Does this happen to you?  I try to make sure now that not only do I like the images I buy, but that they'll be easy enough to use that I don't avoid them. 

I doodled around the sentiment with the fine tip of an SU marker (boy, wished my copics had those fine tips!).  To make it stand out more, I popped up the greeting with dimensionals and accented the border of the main image with  little Basic Grey pearls.

My DH also has his coming up, and it seems to me to be a tough time for birthday's since everyone is distracted with Christmas.  I guess it depends how you look at it--is it a festive time of year for a birthay, or a time of year when your birthday may fall second to the festive season.  Guess it's like asking if the cup is half full or half empty LOL!  So tell me,  do any of you have birthday's coming up in the next little while, and what is your perspective on this?