Trying Something New

I have always enjoyed reading blogs that have cool graphics.  One of my friends made my banner for me, which I love, but now I'm itching to be able to do it myself.  So I downloaded a trial of Corel's Paint Shop Pro.  After messing around with it a little bit, I made this...

Yeah, I know it isn't fancy at all.  I need some help to learn how to use this program before I commit to buying it.  Is there another program out there that would suit my needs better?  I want to be able to edit digital photographs for the blog, my etsy shop, and eventually to use in my scrapbooking.

Also, what about Flikr?  I know a lot of bloggers use it to store photos.  Is it worth getting the pro membership?