One Little Word

So I mentioned last week that I signed up for a class that will help J and I dig into and live our word--Open--for 2012.  This is a scrapbooking class, offered online, with suggested prompts and projects each month (if you'd like to learn more, scroll down to the One Little Word icon below on the right, click that, and learn all you want to know!).  I'm drawn back to the one scrapbook class I took previously, my last semester at Murray (ten years ago).  It didn't take me long to learn that I haven't changed much.  The teacher presents a sample, I look it over, consider it strongly, then get started and create something entirely different using the skills learned in the lesson.  Case in point:

I've started a 4.25 x 6.5 handmade album (the teacher's example is an 8.5 x 11 three-ring binder.  I used three rings...just no binder...) The cover, to demonstrate our word, is made to look like a door which, when opened will have the word "open" pop up in some way (not there yet, but certain it will work.  As a result of my inability to follow directions (I prefer to think of it as creativity and initiative), I've not made it past the 'pre-assignment' much less finished the January assignment.  Yes, the February assignment launches tomorrow.  I figure since I started the class late, I've got time to make it up, too.

Do you take prompts and projects as suggestions to be ignored after you've gleaned the useful information?  Is that a creative trait or just a willfull one?