Several really dumb questions!

1. Making cards is just like scrapbooking.

2. To find kits, visit digital scrapbooking sites.

3a. Backgrounds are usually jpgs.

3b. Textures are used on backgrounds to give interest to plain colored backgrounds

3c. Shapes - when you want to use shapes on a card or scrapbook pages, they need to be png, not jpg - so they can be placed on top of other stuff without a white square around it.

4. Frames - are tricky. Drop them over the photo you wish to frame. They can be enlarged/made smaller by using the move tool, however, if you try to make a square frame fit a rectangle, something has to give. Either the top/bottom or the sides will get fatter and your frame may look bad. Sometimes, it's an easy resizing - sometimes impossible. You won't know until you try.  However, PSE may have a function where their frames auto-fit your photo.  I don't use the features in PSE - all my frames come from scrapbook kits.

5. Droplets? I assume you mean things that are 'sprinkled' on a page. Usually this is accomplished using a brush.

EDIT

oops!

Just learned “droplets” are something entirely different. See Sepiana’s explanation below. I never heard that term before. I don't use the drag and drop built-in feature of Photoshop.

When you said droplets, I envisioned something decorative you add to a page for visual interest. 

My idea of droplets??  - the dots on this scrapbook page



6. Templates? I use scrapbook templates and pick and choose and move things around to fit my card. I haven't found a good source for greeting card templates.


Hint: When making greeting cards, start with your 7x10 and at the 5 inch mark, draw a line. Use this line to envision where the halfway point of your card is to determine where you should create your card front. After you finish your card's front, delete the line layer.





I prefer top fold cards.  Remember if you do top fold cards, anything you want on the back will have to be upside down

I have colored the card stock just so it stands out from the white of this thread.  However, I always keep the background of my cards white.
If you color your entire card, it will use a lot of printer ink.  I recommend keeping your background white to save ink.



Side fold example
I do not recommend doing what I did here.  I designed to the outer edges of the front of my card.  After printing, folding may be problematic - just as outlining is problematic.  Your design and printer's output will have to be precise so when you fold it, there is no white showing on the left edge.

Hi cjt, hopefully this will answer your questions.

KITS -- A coordinated collection of digital papers and embellishments that are made available together as a set. Ex.:

katiethecreativelady.com/shop

www.cottagearts.com/index.html

Backgrounds and Textures

Usually available as JPEG. However, some websites (such as Photomorphis) also offer Backgrounds and Textures as TIFF. Textural borders/frames are usually available as PNG.

Shapes

As a rule of thumb, Shapes are .csh files (Custom Shapes). They are installed in Elements to make them available to the Cookie Cutter tool and the Custom Shape tool.



Back in Elements 15, Adobe introduced a new feature -- Drag and Drop. Templates specifically designed for Elements users to take advantage of this feature are called Droplets (also called Drag and Drop or Click-or-Drag) When you use these templates, you don't need to create clipping masks. Just drag and drop your photo, paper, text, etc. into the template.

For more information on how to use Droplets in your projects, you may want to check . . .

Digital Scrapbooking -- Resources (See Note).

cjt, you are most welcome!

Thanks for letting us know about the video issue! Here is a written tutorial you may want to check.

Photoshop Elements > Greeting Cards/Invitations

BTW, have you tried the Photo Projects/Greeting Card feature in Elements? If not, you may want to give it a chance.

Making Photo Projects -- Create Greeting Cards (Help file)

Again, many thanks for the info and your time!
cjt