Briar, I was thinking since the kit you used was so grungy, and the journal mat/box is so bright, that they kinda contrast a bit... maybe use a paler but grungy paper for your journal box. It does look great as is, however!
Suzi - For text around a shape, I just usually use smaller blocks of text and place each section by itself. Like for the Pooh song, I did the first part, centered it and then typed the next part of the song on a separate line and centered that, and so forth. If you meant something else, let me know what LO you are referring to.
Another way to brighten a dark pic, similar to Wenrob, but a bit different. Here's what I do and it makes your pics softer too.
Place your picture where you want it.
Use the magic wand and select the whole picture.
Add a new layer, so it is on top of the picture.
Fill in the marching ants with white (colorfill).
Remove marching ants.
Play around with the blending and opacity on the white layer to get a look you like. I usually use the soft light option and the opacity will depend on the LO.
I used this technique on this layout:
And the original pic looked like this:
I only wanted a little brightening, not a lot, so I didn't use 100% opacity.
