Need help with text.

Ok so I am new at this.  Most of the tutorials seem to cover changing text but not how to apply it.  I have only made a handful of icons and it seems that I manage to do things once and then cannot figure out how to do it again.  I have PS Elements 5.0.  I cannot seem to add text to my icons.  I have managed to do it twice but cannot figure it out again.  I crop the icon and add layers to it but when I click the Big "T" and change my font, etc.  Then when I try to do the text on the icon either I get a big dot or a text box with no big line in the center.  For the heck of it I tried to add text before I cropped and that worked but as soon as I crop - I cannot add text.  Myabe I am not doing a step...I just don't know and I am very frustrated.  Does any of this make sense???