Written By: Jenna Yesenosky
Beach tags. We all use them. Unless you only vacation in Wildwood, in which case, consider yourself lucky. You’ve never been rudely awakened while trying to relax in the sand by a sweaty, sunburnt tag checker who’s making sure you actually paid to sit on the beach. Every day, sometimes twice a day, the beloved beach tag checker makes you pull out your tote and drag sand onto your towel so you can prove your purchase of sun and sand. Ugh.
What’s even worse is that the beach tags we buy are only good for a year, and after a summer we throw them away. If we’re going to have to go through all that trouble for one tiny little fluorescent tag, we should at least save them as a keepsake, right?
Here are four ways to reuse and recycle your summer beach tags:
- Make them into keychains. Sick and tired of confusing your keys with your bestie’s? Grab some string, some beads, and a beach tag from your favorite summer and get crafty! Attach the pin to the string, spruce it up with some beads, add a hook and you’re finished! You can even make these as gifts for your shore-lovin’ girls if they get way too jealous of yours.
- Jazz up your bag. Think about it: The tags have to stay on your beach bag for a whole 3 months anyways, right? You might as well make them look pretty! Grab a beach tag, one from every year, add whatever kind of crafty glitter or jewels you please, and stick them back on! Be careful though, your beach tag checker might think you’re trying to pass off a trendy new brooch as a tag!
- Add them to your scrapbook. Was your summer one for the books? Print out some of your favorite pictures and grab some of your best keepsakes and put them all together! Add in a beach tag from last year so you can commemorate summer 2015 and cherish it forever. (Until you make crazier memories this year, that is!)
- Make a DIY picture frame. Personalize a birthday gift for the BFF you spend your whole summer with. Grab a picture frame, some spray paint, glitter, jewels, your beach tags, and get to work! Glue everything onto the frame, slide your favorite picture of the two of you inside, and watch her face light up when she unwraps it. Best present ever!
Yes, beach tags are a major pain in the mermaid tail, but they definitely have a lot more uses than just ensuring you don’t get kicked off of the beach. Any of these four ways to reuse your old beach tags would make you the trendiest girl at the Jersey shore.