I am new to photoshop and have been playing around and gotten the basics down and even made a few simple LOs. I think I may have changed a setting or something OR my brain is melting and I am forgetting a crucial step...

When ever I try to add an element, whether its a photo, background, etc, instead of making a new layer on top of the background, it starts a whole new document!

For instance:
I made a basic colored background using the paintbucket,
went to file>open and selected my photo/element,
it opens my photo or element, but then my original background is gone, and it starts all over with this as my backgound

I JUST made a LO last night and used saved files, etc...
Please save my sanity!
Tina

Hmmm, maybe I don't understand what you are telling me but it sounds like it is working fine. Once your new image is open (say, your new ribbon image) you have to drag it or cut and paste it into your background image. In example:

1. Document 1 is your layout image. You have one layer in it that is your background. To make life easy, this is a good time to save it with a name such as Layout.
2. You open a new image which might have a name like ribbon.png.
3. You arrange your windows so you can see both open documents (windows, cascade or tile or just goof around with the scroll button)
4. You select the ribbon.png layer, make sure your move tool is active, and then drag it over to your Layout document where it will **** as a new layer.

Please let me know if I am way off base here--will try to help you crack this!

Good grief! Have no idea what I typed that got asterisked out as obscene but certainly wasn't intentional! I thought I typed "land" as in land in a new layer and can't think of what typo could have converted that to a word that needed to be edited out...lol

Thats what I mean, I can't keep more than one window open, it just keeps opening what I have selected to use next and making it the background. I can't drag it over to what I start out using as my background, it opens itself as a new background and my original dissapears!

Hi...this may be too easy an answer...but do you have each window inside adobe maximized? if you do you will only be able to see that file...make sure they are minimized (by this I mean not "full screen") so you can move them around in your work space and see more than one file at a time.

__________________

Pleast visit my GALLERY

Yup, like I said...stupid....
Uggg! Thanks for helping out!!

Yeah, that was my step #3. For the hopelessly curious, the word I used was " p l o p" which we have just discovered in the Change One Letter Game forum is apparently taboo! Try putting it in a post and it will get asterisked out! Boy, I am having fun tonight

is it wrong that I am laughing about the pl*p