Bento Kawaii Giveaway

I am having a contest for the awesome customers of my store, visit my store blog for details on how you can win all this! bentocrazy.com

Cinnamoroll Bento

I love Cinnamoroll, (s)he is so cute! And so easy to make too! I just molded some sushi rice into her shape, then added sakura denbu for his cheeks and colored string cheese for his eyes and mouth. Lots of fruit today, since this is my lunch and I love fruit. Mandarin oranges, cherry, and kiwi flowers. That is leftover pork roast in the star shaped paper cup and steamed asparagus rounds it out. Yum!

Monokuro Boo Bento

Monokuro Boo-literally "monochromatic pig" This is daughter's favorite San-X character. The white pig is a California roll, and the black pig is a cucumber roll. There is a little crab & avocado salad up in the corner, and steamed veggies and strawberries.

Sandwich Bento

This was a quicky bento made with my 4 design bread cutter, below. The sandwich is apple butter and peanut butter. The lower tier contains a cabbage salad with honey mustard dressing in the HK container, cheese wedge, and a new flavor chocolate mushroom- choco-raspberry! Yummy!

Kuromi-chan & My Melo Bento

Kuromi is my new favorite Sanrio character, I mean seriously, how can you not love the leader of a tricycle gang?! Plus she is just so cute. And I think deep down, she just wants to be liked :)

She is made with rice which I shaped into a ball with my hands, slightly wet w/ water, otherwise the rice sticks. I cut the nori to fit her face and cut the eyes out freehand. The mouth was done using my nori punch. Her nose and skull are dyed hard boiled egg (and nori)

My Melo is a hard boiled egg made using an egg mold, and she has nori details. Her nose and bow are made with food markers. Broccoli and homemade general tso's chicken on the top, and a strawberry on the bottom. The flowers on the top are baby corn, sliced thin.

You can sorta see the new kinkachu bag I made to match the new kuromi bento box I ordered last week. (yay it should be here next week!)

Tell me the truth, is it lame to love a cartoon character at 31 years of age?

I didn't think so either...

(*.*)

Bento Kinkachu Tutorial

s I made this kinkachu bag for my son to match his Pokemon bento box. It's a fairly easy pattern so I thought I would publish instructions for anyone interested in making their own. I took a few pictures to go along with the instructions, but if you have any questions, please ask!

First you will need a piece of folded fabric. The fold should be on the bottom. Cut this into an 11 x 11 inch square.

when unfolded it is an 11 x 22 inch piece of fabric


Ok, on the top and bottom of the fabric you need to make a 1/4 inch wide fold that is 1.75 inches long. Do this on all four corners. This is part of the drawstring section. Sew the 1.75 inch section.

On both ends of the fabric fold the top of the fabric down one half inch. Press with a warm iron. Then fold down again 3/4 inches and press again. It will be folded down to where the stitches end. Don't sew this part yet.

The next step is to fold the fabric like it was when you started, expect inside out. Sew the outside seams together, starting at the bottom and ending 1.75 inches from the top(where you sewed that part down before) then press the seams flat.

This picture shows the seams pressed flat, you will see that it makes a point on the top.
You can see that I serged the edges of the seams, but that isn't necessary, I only did because this fabric likes to fray.

Next measure 2 inches from the point of the fabric and draw a line with a pencil. Then sew across that line. Repeat on the other side.

If you turn the bag inside out at this point, this is what it looks like. Sewing the points makes a nice square bottom for the bag.

Ok now remember how we pressed the top down before? Now is the time to sew that down. You can press it again if you like, which helps if the 2 sides aren't matching perfectly, now you can adjust it and press it so it matches.
Just sew the top edge down as shown, there will be an opening on both sides where you will thread the cord through.

Cut 2 lengths of cord, each 25 inches long. Fold the end over and secure with a safety pin. (You can use a bigger one, this tiny one was all I could find today)

Ok, start by threading the cord thru the pocket you have made. You will reach the other side where there is another opening, just keep going until you reach the point where you began. Then repeat this process beginning on the other side. When you finish you will have 2 cords hanging out of each side of the bag. Well, it's actually one cord, the beginning & end of the same cord.

String both ends thru a bead and knot the end. Cut the cord close to the knot and pull the cords to close the bag.

Voila! Kinkachu bag! Now go pack a lunch to put in it!

Like I said before, if you have any questions, ask and I will do my best to explain how I did something. I have never written instructions for a sewing project before, so I hope you can follow them ok. This is a pattern that I came up with after looking at how one of my kinkachu bags was made. I thought, hey that looks pretty easy! It took me about an hour to make this, but that was including time to take pictures. So maybe 30-45 minutes. Let me know if you make one, and how it turns out. Thanks!

Hello Monkey!

This is Hello Kitty dressed as a monkey, although my darling husband said that he thought it looked like a mouse. Mouse, monkey...who can tell the difference anyway... ;) Kitty chan is made of inari zushi and colored bell peppers. Her face is detailed with nori and yellow bell pepper.

All she needs now is a banana..or possibly some cheese..

~*(^o^)*~

Hanami Bento

We took a drive to Hakone today, a town very near to Mt. Fuji. We had a picnic next to a lake with a gorgeous view of the mountain. In my family size bento, I packed the following:

Sesame Sakura Onigiri

Plum Sakura Onigiri

Steamed Broccoli and Simmered Carrots

Teriyaki Chicken

Beef-wrapped asparagus

Pork Gyoza

Simmered Pumpkin

Apple Rabbits

Strawberries

Pickled Daikon

Hard Boiled Quail Eggs

It was delicious, and a beautiful day! Here is a picture I took today of Mt Fuji.