Creativity that sets you free...
Hi, I'm Mandy. Grab your coffee and come sit with me for a bit.
An art journal is not a masterpiece that has to hang on the wall, it's a safe space where you can work things through and put down what you actually want. In the next fifteen minutes I'll show you how that works, why your subconscious pays far more attention to pictures than to words, and what that has to do with things you've believed about yourself for years.
🎨 What an art journal really is, and what it isn't
🧠 Why images change what you believe
🦋 The twelve life domains we work through together
🖌️ The two things that stop most ladies before they start
You don't need to be artistic and you really don't need fancy supplies, so just press play and see what stirs for you.
By the way, what I share is based on neuroscience and not some woo-woo, mystical stuff. Take a look.
My Unstuck ladies say it best
"It sparked my creativity and dare to dream again. I had stopped even asking myself what I really wanted." 🦋Sharon
"It was you. Not the drawing, painting, collage, watercolours, acrylics, the pasting, it was you." 🦋Patricia
"A lighthouse through many storms." 🦋Karien
"There is a happy freedom within my heart now." 🦋Heather
Honestly, Unstuck was created for three ladies in particular
#1
You can't draw a stick man
and you're not sure you're even a creative person, but something in you keeps wanting to make something. You just want it to be fun, not exposing.
#2
You've been at this a while
and you have the supplies, probably more than you'll admit to. You're tired of scrolling for ideas and you want to actually create more.
#3
You want to stop feeling frazzled
and go after the things you've quietly wanted for years, in a way that feels light instead of like another thing to get right.
If one of those is you, you're in the right place
Unused creativity... turns into grief, rage, judgment, sorrow, shame.
We are creative beings.
We were made to be creative.
Brené Brown
When you feel like creating something, how does it usually go?
Feeling Stuck
You hesitate, because you don't really feel artistic enough for this, and then you find yourself staring at a blank page not knowing where to start. So you go looking for ideas on Pinterest or YouTube or Instagram, only to get more distracted, and you buy the supplies with every intention of using them one day.
Result:
And then the time is gone and nothing got made, and you're still waiting to feel inspired enough to create something for yourself.
Feeling Unstuck
You log in, find your next lesson, and start creating right away. There's a video and a template so you're never starting from nothing, and every project comes with a little mindset piece so you're working on something real while you play.
You scroll less, you make more, you grow in technique without trying very hard, and it's actually fun.
Result:
And you end up with a beautiful journal you love paging through, which is the whole point, because that's the book that reminds you who you are.
This is what you're making
No talking from me, just paging through.
Turn your sound up if you want the music, or leave it off, it works either way.
What you get when you join us
Everything is bite-sized and you go at your own pace, so nothing here is going to sit on your shoulders as one more thing you're behind on.
💻 Short pre-recorded lessons you can do whenever it suits you
🗺️ Clear mapped out journey you can follow as you work at your own pace
✂️ All the training and templates, so you're never staring at a blank page
🎨 A growing library of technique lessons, beginner right through to advanced, across all sorts of mediums, so you can grow in skill and surprise yourself a bit
🦋 A mindset lesson with every project, so you're going from frazzled to freedom in twelve life domains
🎥 Live group session with me every month
🤩 The safe-space-to-grow members only group, where Unstuck ladies share their pages and cheer each other on
👑 VIP treatment, surprise gifts and special offers available to members only
And a few things that come with it:
The Adventure Series Workshops. These sell on their own in the shop for R975 all together, and they come with your membership. Each one is a proper sit-down session where we take one thing you've been believing about yourself and make something bold out of it, like Be Brave, where we go graffiti style and land on I am brave enough to be seen. There's also Sea Turtle, Jellyfish, Whale of a Time, Bloom, Flourish, Worthy and Vision By Faith.
Every bootcamp replay, another R975. Becoming, Unveiled, Tideventures, Flourish, YOUnique, Renew, Thrive, Tropical Vibes and Bloom, all of them yours, and whatever we run from here comes to you free as well. You become a bootcamp VIP for as long as you're with us.
The Becoming Creative Mini Course, R99. This one sells on its own and it's the softest possible place to start if you'd rather warm up a bit before you dive into the life domains.
So that's R2,049 worth of extra workshops and bootcamps as bonuses along with a membership worth more than your R1,690 lifetime access payment or only 12 payments of R169 - Netflix or your gym would never do this!
Twelve areas, four projects in each, and we take them in little pieces
Identity is a good example. Say it's self-belief, and there's that thing you feel you just can't do. Well, maybe it's not yet. You just can't do that thing yet, and that's a gift you give yourself, that not yet. So we make an image about it and you write your words on it, and then you page through and remind yourself until your heart catches up with what you already know.
That's how every one of these works.
Identity
What do you actually believe about yourself? We look at your self-worth, your self-esteem, your self-belief and your self-image, until you can look in the mirror through glasses of acceptance and glasses of grace.
Soul
Your emotional intelligence, your self-sabotages, and finding out why you're here. The two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why.
Body
Taking care of yourself so you're not carrying stress all the time, and taking that picture you have of yourself healthy and actually living into it.
Juicy Life
Making time for the thing you love doing without feeling guilty about it. The simplest luxuries, a pocket of me time, and finding gratitude in small things that lifts you.
Social Life
Actually making time for heart friends, and nurturing the relationships that really matter to you.
Love Life
What fills your cup, and what fills your partner's cup. Becoming the change in your relationship, and valuing what's already working.
Family Life
Having your home as a safe space where you can be creative and be yourself, without having to prove anything to anybody. Connection time, and knowing what your values are.
Bloom
How you contribute, and what you have to offer without fear of criticism. Giving of yourself from a full cup, and what you want to leave behind you.
Expertise
What are you really good at, and are you taking the time to develop it? Learning to acknowledge yourself, which most of us are terrible at.
Occupation
Finding fulfilment in what you do, whether you're a homeschool mom or running your own business. What's your impact, and how is that growing?
Prosperity
Are you stuck in a scarcity mindset? We look at moving into abundance and trusting for more in your life.
Spirit
Prayer, meditation, developing your faith muscles and the daily discipline that gets you where you're going. This one's optional, take it or leave it.
Picture This
Remember 50 First Dates, with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore? Yes, I know it's ancient, stay with me.
Henry falls in love with Lucy, and Lucy's short term memory resets itself every single morning. She wakes up with no idea what happened the day before. So every day he has to find her again, and win her again.
They do end up married with a family, and the way he manages it is this: he makes her a video. Every morning she watches it, and every morning she remembers what matters.
I do something quite similar!
No, my memory is fine, I don't need reminding who my husband and my boys are.
But I realised one day that I do forget the things that matter most, and honestly it happened so quietly I couldn't tell you when it started.
The dreams I'd deserted, the goals I'd let go of, the things my heart still wanted.
All of it just went somewhere, sort of like a secret birthday candle wish that only I knew about, the kind you're not allowed to say out loud in case you jinx it.
I wanted that part of myself back and I didn't know where to look for her.
After giving away so much of myself for so long, I found myself staring at an empty space where all of that used to be, honestly not knowing what my dreams were anymore, or what my heart was still longing for.
So I went back to a time when I did know. I was planning our wedding, with very little money and a completely impossible picture in my head, and I made myself a wedding journal.
It was not just stuck-in pictures of dresses and cakes. It was full of dreams and desires and imagination and excitement, and every time I paged through it I connected with the emotions that were stirred in me.
It was a visual reminder of what I wanted. And I pulled it off.
Thinking back on that journal is what made me start a new one, only this time I used it for both the big audacious things and the small everyday mommy victories. I made them visual and I reminded myself of them every time I paged through, just like Lucy watching her video, and slowly my habits started changing in ways that actually stuck.
And then I pulled off one of the biggest things I'd ever wanted, which was living in our favourite beach town.
I started teaching other women to do this, and it worked for them too.
That's really all Unstuck is.
I show you how to use the art journal method to get those mindset breakthroughs for yourself, one lesson at a time, and I release a new one every week.
A bit about me
I'm Mandy Venter, and I live in Jeffrey's Bay with my husband Riaan and my two boys, close enough to the sea that I can go and fetch a sponge off the beach when I need one for a project.
I was my own patient zero with all of this. I was stuck in a place where I felt like my soul was dying, there was no creativity in my days at all, and doing the same thing every morning was quietly killing something in me. So I tested this on myself long before I ever taught it to anybody, and it's the reason I can tell you it works without overselling it.
Artsy Maven has my name inside it, which nobody ever notices. MA from Mandy, VEN from Venter, and a maven is a teacher. It's not a clever brand name, it's more of a declaration I made about who I was going to be.
My purpose for Unstuck is to create a safe space where ladies can connect with their own creativity, renewing their minds in the process, and realising their true worth so they can thrive in all areas of their lives.
If you know I am I speaking to you, won't you take that next step and join us?
I would love to have you in Unstuck.
I grew up in a very left-brainer house, where facts, trying to be perfect and becoming good at the "to-do" things, was given preference above creativity and the freedom to just be.
In later years this lifestyle pattern caused major internal stress, and I experienced very little joy in life... until I realized what was missing... CREATIVITY!
The Unstuck Method is one of the best things that came my way, it holds a double blessing, since it not only contains a creative project, but also a mindset lesson which is immensely valuable in that it's taking me from being frazzled to freedom in every one of the twelve life domains.
The life-value of this course far outweighs it's price.
Carin
My very first member!
What the Unstuck ladies say
"I never considered myself to be a creative person, yet I have always felt the urge to create something."
Lecia
"I gifted the membership to myself because I am worthy to have a little me time."
Desiree
"I live for my lessons every week."
Elsabe
"I now know that I am not the only one whose fighting this battle."
Yvonne
"Being creative with meaning, for a short time everyday, actually helps to bring clarity and peace into my thoughts."
Louise
"UNSTUCK is an answer to prayer for me."
Marli
Join Unstuck Today!
Two ways to join and you keep access for life.
One payment where you pay for 10 months and get 2 months free.
Twelve payments spread over twelve months, and then you get lifetime access, unless you cancel before the time.
Both include the twelve life domains, the lessons and projects, the live session every month, the group, all eight Adventure Series workshops, every bootcamp replay including whatever we run from here, and the Becoming Creative mini course. Just over two thousand rand of it, for less than that.
R169/mo
Start today for R169
Twelve payments then lifetime access
Twelve payments and then it stops. After that you have lifetime access and you never pay again, which as far as I know is not how any subscription is supposed to work. Netflix would certainly never do this.
R1690
Only one payment of R1690 today
Pay for ten months & get two months free
One payment, lifetime access, nothing further. It works out to ten months instead of twelve, so if you'd rather do it in one go, two months are on me.
Frequently asked questions
I'm brand new at this. Will it actually work for me?
Yes, and honestly beginners often do very well, because you're not carrying any ideas yet about how it's supposed to look.
I've been art journaling for years. Is there anything here for me?
There is. Our more experienced ladies tell me the clear path is what they were missing, so they scroll less and create more. And it's the mindset side that surprises them. Before Unstuck a lot of them were sticking in quotes without much connection to them, and now their pages actually mean something because they're journaling with purpose.
How much time does this need?
An hour a week, or an hour every two weeks, depending on how much detail you want to put into a project. Some of the ladies only do the live sessions with me every month and they're thriving. The lessons are pre-recorded so you can do one a week, or skip a week and pick it up whenever. The videos are short, and you can either watch first and create later, or pause as you go and create along with me. It works for a busy working mom and it works if you have quiet mornings.
I don't have many art supplies. Do I need to spend a fortune?
Not at all. Start where you at and use what's in your hand. The coloured pencils I still use today were bought for me by my mother when I finished school in 2002, and honestly a glue stick and a magazine from the secondhand shop and something to add words and colours will get you going just as well.
I can't even draw a stick man.
That's genuinely fine, and it's not the point. This isn't a masterpiece that has to hang on the wall, and there's really no right and wrong in your own journal. What you experience when you look at it again weighs more than the technique you used. Very soon you'll find yourself drawing, painting and surprising your hubby, kiddos and friends.
As Marie Forleo says: "Starting small and sucky beats staying stucky".
When do I get access?
Straight away. You'll get an email with everything in it the moment you've paid, and you'll be let into the group within a business day or two of asking to join.
Can I cancel?
Yes, anytime, no explaining yourself to anybody. If you cancel before your 12th payment, you won't get lifetime access to the Unstuck membership.
Do you do refunds?
I would rather have you join when you are ready. Email me if anything is unclear at [email protected].
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