Ok so im very new to this and i was following a tutorial on the Creation Kit http://www.creationkit.com/Retexture_Tutorial . I downloaded all of the programs it lists, Gimp 2.8.0 along with gimp dds, FOMM and Nifskope. After a few hours of tweaking, all the programs open and work properly. However when after i created my new texture, Im having issues with the creation kit being able to "find" it. I created it in gimp, saved it and Nifskope can open it fine. I followed the tutorial but for some reason when i copy the old "siversword" art and replace it with mine, the preview shows a red and white ! and says "can not find model". when running the game my texture is invisible. I know all of the programs are installed correctly so it has to be something im doing in either Gimp or Nifskope. Ive been trouble shooting some, trying different things but i get the same result. In the tutorial above it states that when you open the image in Gimp, to check Load Mipmaps. Load Mipmaps was already checked so i left it go, however i seen on another website, it said to Uncheck Mipmaps. Also in the tutorial it states hit File-Save as when your finished editing and check Generate Mipmaps, Generate Mipmaps dose not appear when i hit save as, only when i click Export. Could this be my issue? Im thinking i need to uncheck mipmaps before i edit my texture then when i click save as, i can press Generate Mipmaps? Let me know what you think, and im open to any other ideas. thanks

You do not need to load mipmaps when you open a texture, but you do need to generate mipmaps when saving.

Is your new texture in your Skyrim\Data\Textures\xx folder? (where xx is the subcategory of where the original texture was)
Is the texture path in Nifskope dynamic? As in, the texture path starts with Textures\xx and not starting with C:\Steam\Steamapps, etc, etc.?
Did you create and attach a normal map?

^ Yes, make sure you have your .dds imported to the proper directory in order to overwrite/add to the list that can be visible within CK and game.