Trying Out My New Photoshop Elements 5

I have so many creative friends, I figured it was about time to get on the band wagon. No, I'm not ready to start scrap booking or anything crazy like that, but I do think it would be fun to design my own Christmas cards, maybe my blog heading, and stuff like that. So I ordered Photoshop Elements 5 (the day I got it in the mail, I realized Elements 6 came out). Anyways, here is my first attempt at a"layout".......if you want to call it that. Yes, this is not that creative and it looks pretty simple, but it took me TWO days to figure out how to do just this alone. I have so much to learn. It took me hours just to figure out how to open a new file. I suppose just taking a class would be the easiest. Any tips would be appreciated. I will admit, it is kind of fun to get my creative juices flowing.