Mother creates Astonishing cartoon artwork from her sons Packed Lunches
A mother-of-two who makes incredible artwork from packed lunches was clearly never told to stop playing with her food as a child.
Li Ming, 38, started making the charabens - a form of arranging food - three years ago for her two sons Ivan Tey, 10, and seven-year-old Lucas Tey to take the school.
The full-time mother from Singapore, has gone on to make more than 100 different creations for her boys including rice versions of Super Mario and Spiderman.
She also made a pasta version of SpongeBob SquarePants and a range of other well-known characters including Despicable Me minions and a Hello Kitty sandwich.
Li's inspiration often comes from everyday items on the street, but most of all she goes with the ideas pitched by her sons.
She said: 'I started packing charabens for Ivan to take to school because he had a hard time coping.
'He refused to go to school and cried everyday - he was not used to the longer hours and missed me.
'I packed him charabens with written messages to make him feel more secure.
'Lucas saw one of them and asked for one to take to kindergarten and he really enjoyed the attention he got from his teachers and friends.
'I ended up decorating either their lunch or dinner instead and they eat those at home.
'They still enjoy looking at what I make and will give comments at times on how I can position certain parts.
'They are excited when I make characters they like or request.'
Li makes around six different creations every week but keeps some of them a secret to put in her new book.
She said: 'It's difficult to say which ones are my favourite because I like all of them for different reasons.
'Ideas come from everywhere.
'It can be a character my boys or I like and other times my boys make request to make certain characters.
'I also get inspiration from surfing the web and things I see in everyday life such as stickers, displays or event posters.
'I usually make around six designs per week and I'll share three or four of these online - the rest are for my upcoming book.'
Find more examples of food decoration on Li Ming's blog: www.bentomonsters.com
