Cream together the butter and sugar with a mixer until smooth.
Beat in the vanilla extract and egg.
In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt and mix well.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients a little at a time, beating together.
When it's all mixed in, wet your hands and knead it by hand until it has a good dough consistency.
Immediately roll small batches out onto a floured surface to about ¼ inch thick, then cut out the teddy bear shapes with a cookie cutter. (Don't chill the dough)
Set the shapes on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Use a toothpick to make the teddy bear face. Then add an almond diagonally to each shape and press it down slightly into the dough. Use a toothpick to lift up each arm and press it around the almond to look like the teddy bear is hugging the almond.
Bake at 350F for 10 minutes, or until edges are very slightly golden.
Notes
You'll really only need half of the dough in this recipe. You can use the other half of the dough to make sugar cookies in other shapes (I'd recommend larger cookie cutters after making a bazillion bears...), or you can freeze the rest of the dough for another time. Just let the frozen dough defrost for several hours before you plan to roll it out.