My husband goes to a lot of conferences for his job. At each, he gets a lanyard name tag. He saves them on the door knob of his home office. In the past, I have put them to good use on diaper bags and lunch coolers (my son had a food allergy so I would have to prominently label “NO EGG” on all his belongings,) but since the days of diapers and allergy tags are behind us, the tags have kind of accumulated, unused. Until now!
Today I was trying to devise a semi-waterproof garden tag using what I already had on hand. I knew I wanted to use the wood clothes pins I had lying around – their “clipability” seemed perfectly suited for garden tags, but I wasn’t sure how to waterproof the tag itself. Enter the lanyard tags.
I simply removed the tags from their lanyards and slid the front of the seed packets into the pocket. With the opening of the name tag facing down, I clipped the clothespin to the tag. For the packets that still had seeds in them, I ran off a copy of the front of the packet instead (Hubberman’s home office is helping out a lot with this project.) 🙂
Time will tell just how water-resistant these guys will be. I’m sure the clothespins will break down over time, but no less than the popsicle sticks I used last year.
I also found some other adorable ways to use clothespins as markers on the web. If my idea doesn’t float your boat, try one of these:
http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2011/08/08/seed-starting-adventures/
http://www.glueandglitter.com/main/2011/06/29/clothespin-plant-markers/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/3549735749/
http://homesteadrevival.blogspot.com/2012/03/plant-garden-markers.html
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/photos/0,,20390908_20793608,00.html
Have a terrific weekend!
Clover and Thyme 
I love this!! I am all about the homemade side projects for the garden needs. I took a piece of wood that came inside my wine boxes and just wrote what the veggie was, this is so much better!! I love it.
Thanks!
Super clever!
Thanks! They were fun to put together!
You read my mind! So cute! I was at the store yesterday buying Mod Podge for the markers I am making this week with the kids!
Oooh! You’ll have to post photos. I’d love to see them.
Going to raid the cupboard at work now, thanks. 🙂 LOL
LOL, great! I’m glad I was able to repurpose those things, they have been accumulating in our house for years!
Brilliant! I used to go to a lot of teacher conferences and I always saved the plastic nametag thingies thinking I could use them for something. Of course I eventually threw them all away, but what a great idea.
Thanks for dropping by and commenting! Yes, I was so happy to repurpose those things. They seem to be holding up great so far!
Ace! Clothespins are my secret weapon for everything…
Thanks for dropping by and commenting! Yes, the clothes pins are the perfect secret weapon!