We're all big fans of Lego in this family. After a recent visit to Legoland Windsor, I was inspired to create a Lego themed bento for my daughter.
To make the Lego blocks I used a straw to poke holes into the cucumber and carrot, cut the vegetable a little slimmer then stuck the circle that had been cut out back into the veg. Which created little Lego like bumps.
I used turmeric to colour the rice yellow (probably a little too much as my daughter didn't like the taste, whoops......less is more with such a strong spice).

My daughter is a huge Harry Potter fan. We're hoping to visit Harry Potter world in the next few months, so to tide her over until our adventure I created this little bento for her. I will no doubt make some more Potter inspired designs in the near future.

I made this cute little bear by adding soya sauce into the rice whilst still hot and gently stirring it in until you have an even light brown colour.
My daughter absolutely loved this bento bear!

I made these little panda bears by shaping the rice into panda shapes, then added nori to make the arms, and features.

I should have uploaded this one last week but it got forgotten! Just found it hiding in my photo folder.

There's nothing cuter than a Totoro! We're big fans in this family.
Excuse the slightly orange tint, I must buy a daylight lamp for taking photo's on gloomy days.

I used crushed black sesame seeds mixed with the rice to make it grey (its best to do this whilst the rice is still warm). Cheese slices cut into little circles for the eyes and nori for the features.
The cucumber has been cut into leaves and the carrot into flowers, both with cutters.
I tried to give the bento box an autumnal theme. The leaves changing colour in the autumn are quite inspiring.

So, this time I experimented with making a ham flower, it looks a little messy unfortunately. I will have to try cutting it differently next time.
I made the stars & flowers out of carrots and broccoli (I used the stem).
The bunnies are made using moulds and I created the features with nori.

I asked the mini bean what she wanted in her bento box this week, her reply "a chick!"
I shaped the rice by hand into the shape of the head. Used nori for the eyes, ham for the cheeks, a little carrot flower for the "hair" at the top of the head and two pieces of sweetcorn for the beak.
The carrot and cucumber have been cut into flowers using a cutter.
I attempted the ham flowers again, more ham seems to be better in this case.

I made the cucumber and carrots into flowers. The octopuses are made from frankfurters and the panda is made from rice and nori.