Thanks, gardengirl. I use Adobe PhotoShop CS because we use it in our photography business, but it is a very expensive program that has way more bells and whistles than the average person would ever use. There are many inexpensive and even free programs available that you can have a lot of fun with. One free program is PhotoFiltre. There are free downloads available all over the internet. It doesn't support "layers", but does many fun effects on graphics and photos. There are also many tutorials out there, or you can teach yourself like I did, by trial and error.
Creating graphics is a creative outlet for me and I am thankful that Amy lets me work with her. She thinks I am doing her a favor by helping with Amy's Place, but it's actually just the opposite. ;-)
I’ll have to get my daughter and my niece to show me how! I write, mostly, and read on my pc. Not very adventurous otherwise.