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That is the problem. I'm not seeing any 'inner circle' layer.
I've moved the layers around and the only one close to an inner circle is called light plastic and gives me the result below.
All of the layers in the template are... drop shadow, outer ring, disc shadow, 'your image here', 2nd shadow, 1st shadow, light plastic, hole shadow, center hole shadow, plastic, and the four colors.
It seems to me as if the template is incomplete.
I can usually pick up on these sort of things quite easily but for some reason this is not one of those times
If I upload the original cd scan can you see if you can do what needs done by simply using the template... that way I know if there is a template issue or if I'm just being stupid.

so I take it you put your scan just above the 'your image here' layer.
You have many options for the centre ring ? - split ring/large/small.
Have you turned the layers on (I use photoshop btw but theres not a great deal of difference) i'm not sure if the layers are activated as standard.
I would imagine that the layers you need are in folders (not just single layers) - by a process of elimination switch all layers on.(As I cant see your layer structure)
This should give you all layers visible - if all else fails - let me know

It sounds like you are using the older Gimp template. Gimp can open PSD files, you can get the latest from this post.

A slight surface blur would help reduce the artifacts and probably reduce the file size.

Hi there,

i just read this thread. Sorry i´am German, so my English is not the best at all.
I had the same problems, when I started doing CD-Arts. But I finaly find my way to do them. I just did a german "how to do cdarts in gimp". As I sad my English is not the best at all, but after reading this thread, i just tried to translate it into english. (Guess with a lot of "german-english" and bad grammar ...........) It still contains german screenshots, but maybe it will help you to do cd-arts.
So here is the link to download it :

http://www.file-upload.net/download-867 ... t.pdf.html

Nice tutorial Kars1072. Thanks for taking the time.

Hey guys. Thanks for the replies. I wasn't around much this weekend so just seeing them now. I will get back on this again tonight.

Kars1072, Danke for the tutorial.

Well, I knew from the start that my issue was going to be simple or just me being stupid. I guess it was both.
What I was doing (or not doing depending how you look at it)... When I was using the ellipse tool to cut out my circle I was cutting out exactly my circle (the size of the actual hole).
I then though another step would be involved to get the 'inner circle' highlight to show.... nope I just simply had to draw a bigger ellipse
It was while reading through Kars1072 tutorial that I had realized this simple mistake. Very awesome step by step tutorial that in my opinion should replace the site tutorial or at least be added to the list.

Anyway, I have a couple cd's floating on the site now and a bunch more will be coming this week.

On another note... after the ellipse is drawn in the tutorial they have you using the bucket tool and making sure the foreground color is correct before using.
In Kars1072 tutorial he is using the erase tool.
After drawing my ellipse I simply press the delete button and its cut out... seems much more simple that way.
This if of course for a single inner ring... I guess that wouldn't work for a split ring but the majority seem to be the former.

Thanks again for the help guys.

It's all about different ways to skin a cat.
I believe the bucket tool way was using layer masks. I prefer to just use delete myself.
I love layer masks but I usually only use them when I am looking for some semi-transparency. They are nice though if you want to keep the original content intact, but I just dupe the original layer and leave it in case I ever need to go back.

Anyway, glad you worked it out, and thanks again to Kars1072 for the great tutorial.

Glad to hear, that the tutorial did help you.

You are right with "After drawing my ellipse I simply press the delete button and its cut out... seems much more simple that way." ... i´ll try to add that in my tutorial.
It was a way to introduce that tool, that will be needed to do a "split-ring"-cd. But I should add that as a "tip" in the first part of cutting the ring - thanks for that.