Last week, I started a new scrapbook after taking a break from the hobby for a few months. Whenever I do this, I notice an interesting (and slightly annoying) phenomenon. The first two or three pages of my scrapbooks tend to feature bland designs — a few uncropped pictures simply matted and symmetrically placed. By the fourth and fifth pages, however, my creative juices are flowing. I use vibrant colors, interesting lines, and careful cropping to make my pages visually interesting.

But how do I reconcile these fabulous designs with the flat first pages? Usually, I try to go back and liven up the start of the scrapbook by adding words, stickers, or other items of interest, but the effect is never quite the same as a page that was visually appealing from the start.

I think there are many parallels between scrapbooking and beading — both draw on color, shape, line, proportion, texture — so I’m curious to know if any of you have ever experienced inconsistent creativity as you design a project. If so, how do you avoid it? Or, if you’ve gotten too far in the project to avoid it, how do you fix it?