I was trying to move my mail to a folder and instead hit archive in gmail. now I am not sure how to access the archived folder. i am sure it is easy, but i just don't know. any tips? help?

You should be able to find your email in the All Mail view:

mail.google.com/mail/#all

Once there, you can select it using the checkbox and either add a label or click the "Move to Inbox" button.

Basically you can click "All mail" to browse the archive, or just use the search box on the top to find the message by search.

Thanks!! So easy! :)