2.5 how to save a texture ive drawn on?

so earlier today i was buzzing right along learning some texturing when i saved my project and pressed the “pack into blend file”

it told me i couldn’t save the textures why is this?

then when i open blender again all my work is gone

this makes no sense at all.

another problem i am having with texturing–

i tried out vertex paint with painting a texture and it froze my comp

i close blender and reload the blend file, i think “good thin i saved my painted textures as .png files so i wont have to deal with painting them all over again”

i load the saved texture png files… there blank

You will need to save your texture as an image before you can pack it in the blend file. Just do this from the image editor menu, if I recall from Imgae / Save Image as entry