SIMPE How to get simPE to see CEP

I've never used Photoshop except when I was visiting a sim friend in Ireland. It was a huge struggle and I was very glad to go back Paint Shop Pro 7. You can download a demo version of that I think that lasts forever, from one of the obsolete-ware sites. If you're comfortable with Gimp, use that - it's more important to use something that works for you comfortably, than to have the latest thing. As long as you can do layers, and save png's you're good. I used to know someone who did their recolours with MSPaint! (That was for Sims 1)

Comfortable isn't exactly how I would put it. I can change my Fraps shots into jpegs for boards, I can crop, use the clone tool and if I'm pointed in the right direction via a tutorial I should be able to find hue and saturation again, but that's about the extent of it. I had my computer cleaned up recently and the guy updated my Gimp and now my tool box has vanished and I had to poke around to find that changing bmp's to jpegs is now under 'export' instead of save as. I don't even know what else has changed.
I'm going to give the tutorials a go on the weekend when my dh takes the kids downtown, plenty of peace and quiet then.

If you know how to crop and resize and you can make pngs then you are a long way forward. Then you can find the frame you need to recolor in SIMPE (or a custom object) by going to the Object Workshop and either pressing start or open. Start will open the games file for you choose an item to recolor, using open you can select a CC picture. Then you will see the word clone in the bar - all the way on the right is the arrow to open the dropdown and select recolor. Choose recolor and then you should get a file created which contains the image.

Now you know how big the image is in the game item, you crop/resize whatever your image to the same dimensions of the image and copy and paste it over the existing image. Then usingBuild DXT (use the DXT3) you can import the picture. Save and done.

Well because I didn't need the pictures any longer. (round one of the MTS build contest is over and I found some okayish pictures that I downloaded) I haven't tried the picture tutorial but instead I badly needed a baby clothing rack recoloured for boys, and I managed to follow and use object workshop for that. I won't say they look great as a couple of the patterns disappeared into the arms, as the arms were not where I thought they would be. But from the distance I think it looks alright. I might have done it the hard way. I coloured each clothing piece on the rack in with the lasso and paint brush, pasted a tiny picture on each one and then used the magnifying glass to hand paint areas.