Welcome! Your enthusiasm makes me smile. I'm so glad you found us. I, biased as I may be, think this is the BEST site for CG scrapping advice.
I have a Canon Powershot G2 (4 megapixel) and an HP Photosmart printer. I'm SO jealous you have hte large format printer. I'd love to have an idea of the print quality of those.
It sounds like you're off to a rousing start. I'm a Photoshop 7 user (dying for Photoshop CS) myself. I think you're good with Elements. PS7 has a number of bigger features...but really, people here do amazing things with Elements. I think Elements is more user-friendly too. You can always upgrade later if you feel like you're outgrowing Elements.
I can hardly wait to see your first CGLOs. You're more than welcome to print out the tutorials! (Just don't publish them somewhere else and take credit for writing them.
) I think you'll find that SBB members are very friendly and very knowledgable. Feel free to ask any questions and post your progress.
Once again, Welcome!