The Number Three

Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher, once declared that "the world and all that is in it is determined by the number three." He talked about three kinds of friendship, three kinds of motion, three reasons for being attracted to something and three forms of government.

I'm sure you have heard of three blind mice, three wise men, three stooges, and three strikes (and you're out). I can go on and on! Think of all the TV programs and films where there are three main characters - Charmed, Dawsons Creek, Charlie's Angels, Harry Potter, the original Star Trek, McLeod's Daughters.

The number three also plays a huge part in our beliefs and in some cultures is considered a very lucky number. How about the Christian Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), that Jesus was said to have risen on the third day, the three gods of Hinduism (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva) and three Greek brothers (Zeus, Poseidon and Hades).

Think of all the items you see in everyday life, where three plays a part - shamrocks, Triceratops Dinosaur (I have a three-year-old nephew!). Atoms consist of three constituents (Protons, Neutrons and Electrons), and there are three main fatty acid categories (Saturated, Monounsaturated, Polyunsaturated). Have you been on hold with a call center? Notice how they ask you questions in blocks of three?

With all these number threes being bashed around the universe, it's not surprising therefore that the number three also appears a lot in scrapbooking!

We naturally divide a page into sections (left, right and center) or use Blue, Red and Yellow (the three primary colors). We scrap subjects in the past, present and future and how many of you spend time thinking about your placement of emblishments like Goldilocks trying out beds (Too Big, Too Small, Just Right). We group photos into threes to create some balance on a page, we group emblishments in threes, we use triangles and three words in titles.

Here are three (appropriately, I think) layouts that I discovered in the recent gallery which use the number three:

1. you are a gift by Ingrid G - Ingrid G has used three a lot in her pretty layout - three squares around her words, three small flowers and three larger flowers and three colored sections of patterned paper. She also has limited her colors to just three!

1. How much do you Know about Mom by dcl24 - DCL24 has used three journalling blocks, three flowers and three letters in the name "MOM" and again, three main colors.

1. Three Generations by Patter - Patter created this darling layout to celebrate three generations of a family. (She also has three identical daughters with many other "three" layouts in her gallery!)

There are many many more layouts in the gallery with the number three attached to them. I challenge you to go and look for some more, and next time you are sitting at your scrap table take some time out to think about how you are using the number three on your pages!

If you are interested in any more information about the number three you can find it here at Wikipedia.