Jim,
looks like one of my collages
. I think you need to realize that collages are for artists. You either have that skill or you don't. If you don't, find some templates and use them to create a look that you are satisfied with and then take the template apart to see how they created that look.
I'm very fortunate to have Linda who really is an artist so I haven't had to learn this skill myself. Keep in mind that every ad we do for The Rottweiler Magazine is basically a collage so Linda creates 20-30 collages a month and they're all different.
But if you're the only one doing post-processing, you need to arm yourself with some basic templates that you can drop your images into. Or, you can hire Linda to do your collages
.
Jim