I agree. The GIMP has FAR more power and flexibility than Elements, which is horribly knobbled. I've installed GIMP v2.6.1 a while ago and it is really quite a comprehensive package. Incredible that it is free.
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/gim...i686-setup.exe
Give it a go Barry - I think you'll be better off doing a project based on this than Elemental... sorry... Elements.