I looked at the pictures and they look great!
Photoshop is really easy once you get the hang of it, there are a lot of tutorials out there but most of them probably wont tell you what you want
(I should write a set of tutorials on introduction to photoshop or something..) but theres probably some out there but I've never looked for them. Some good tutorial websites what everyone likes are
Good-Tutorials / Photoshop Tutorials + Flash Tutorials and
Photoshop Tutorials, Flash Tutorials and More! P2L Tutorial Search
If you need any help in photoshop please post your questions or send me a PM and I'd love to help you as best as I can!
Before you buy Photoshop Elements (you may have already done so) you should download a trial of Photoshop CS3 thats what I have. The only thing whats different between elements and photoshop is that photoshop has more features and elements is just a stripped down version of photoshop.