You could do as Pippin suggests, or you could arrange your workspace to see the two side-by-side. I close everything else I don't need. And then go to Window --> Arrange --> Tile Vertically (or Horizontally, depending on the orientation of your files and your preference).
Then you can even go back and forth between the files, picking colors off of one to put into another, to compare colors, styles, etc.
Now, this is in PS CS2, so I'm not sure what Elements has or doesn't have.
Once you figure out the layers thing, you will love it.
Lali