FREE Lesson: The Power of Threes

For more free lessons visit ABCreations University, or as I like to call it ABC-U!

If you've ever wondered why some people make amazing looking layouts, but you're not sure what they all have in common, it might be something as simple as using the power of threes. The human mind likes things that comes in threes: three-ring binders; three-ring circuses; Goldilocks and the three Bears; A,B,C; 1,2,3; three blind mice; three musketeers; trinity; three Stooges; Huey, Louie and Dewey. (Quack! Quack! Quack!)

Speech coaches, writers, and comedians all understand the building blocks of visual communication. Ideas presented in threes are more easily understood and remembered.

For example:

William Shakespeare’s “Friends, Romans, Countrymen...”

Abraham Lincoln’s “...government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

“Three guys went into a bar...” (or three anything went somewhere as the set up to a joke).

These building blocks of visual communication transfer over to scrapbooking layouts quite easily using elements, colors, and fonts. They make your layouts look amazing very quickly! Let's start by working with three photos of the same orientation. It's a simple and one of my favorite ways to start a layout. You can line the photos up all neat and tidy as I have in "Pomegranate Tree," or you can do a bit of staggering as I have in "Waiting for Mama" depending on your preference.

"Pomegranate Tree" is part of a two-page spread that also works on its own because of the way the layout is designed based upon threes. Three photos on three mattes, with three butterflies, and three sets of three elements in the bottom right corner (for a total of nine). Even the piece of patterned paper has three rows of hearts on it!


"Waiting for Mama" has the staggered photos on three beautiful patterned papers, and uses various groupings of three elements to take your eye around the layout.

When you're working with three elements you've got enough to set up a pattern, and, thus repetitions and rhythmic appeal. "Eleven on 11-11-11" uses three rows of photos to tell a story while getting a ton of photos on one page! It also uses word/number repetition with the 11-11-11.

Three is a number that’s just enough for creating a progression. It’s used in successful fairy tales, novels, and films as a three-act structure. It's the progression that creates a certain amount of tension that keeps you turning the page, tuning in, or following the visual path on a layout. Creating a visual triangle of three points that stand out (by repeating something three times) is one of my favorite ways to set up flow (or progression) on a layout.
In “Puddle Jumper” you can see the three photos that tell a story, and you can see the three stars that guide your eye to each photo.

In "BANG" there are three photos, three arrows, and three sentences of journaling.

The brain finds it pleasing to see groups of threes. That’s why a design like the one in “Avast Me Hartys” works so well. The set of 3 photos, 3 long strips of paper, 3-word title, set of 3 gems, 3 colors (purple, cream, white), and the last set of 3 elements brings our mind's eye to a very happy place!

Now it’s time for you to get going with threes on your own scrapbook pages! On your mark, get set, GO!

For more free lessons visit ABCreations University, or as I like to call it ABC-U!