How to Apply the Gallon, Pint, Ounce Principle in Three's

Gallon, Pint, Ounce Tutorial
by Beth Price, Creative Team Member

So many design elements come in 3’s. One of the rules you can use to create an eye-appealing design is the color rule of gallon/pint/ounce. Here is what Cathy Zielske writes about color proportion in clean & simple scrapbooking on page 52.

A great rule of thumb for creating layouts with color balance is the gallon/pint/ounce approach.



The dominant color is the gallon amount. This color is frequently the main background cardstock in your layout. The secondary color is the pint amount. Use this to create journaling blocks, or smaller areas of background. The accent color, the ounce amount, could be as simple as some embellishments, or the mats you place around your photos.

In the layout below, you can see an example of using 3 colors in the 3 amounts.

This is a rule of thumb and something to consider when planning your page. But don’t feel it’s a hard and fast rule. Great layouts can be designed while breaking the rule too. Flip through a scrapbooking website or magazine and see if you can identify the gallon, pint and ounce in some of your favorite layouts. This will give you an idea of what you like. Then have fun!