Photo printing blues

I have had it up to there with iPhoto. I’m trying to print pictures for Nicole’s shower book (it took me a long time to get the photo paper — which I am ruining now that I have it) … I am trying to make a collage of pictures digitally and print them as one print. iPhoto won’t let you create a collage file, so I’ve resorted to GraphicConverter, which I have already mentioned makes photos blurry. I’ve tried printing from GC with no luck. I’ve tried importing the files into Word and printing on the highest setting from Word. I’ve tried importing the collage file into iPhoto and printing, but iPhoto won’t let me select 5 inches by 6 inches as a size, nor will it let me print the file actual size (5 inches by 6 inches). Before David got home, Gimp wouldn’t run (due to the iMac hard drive crash) and now it won’t print either, even though the collages I make with Gimp are FAR MORE detailed and less blurry than with GC. I KNOW it’s NOT the files. I took the pictures with a digital REBEL and they’re HUGE. For having a great printer, computer, and decent software (GIMP), I am not impressed with what I’m getting.

Any suggestions I could do for free? I can’t afford to run out and buy Photoshop CS or anything. I guess I could install Photoshop Elements. That will be my next mission. I haven’t given up yet. (I have, however, given up on iPhoto)