imagecopyresampled / copy issue

I have the following class

public static function resize_imagejpg($file, $new_width, $new_height) {
                
            list($orig_width, $orig_height) = getimagesize($file);

            $width = $orig_width;
            $height = $orig_height;
    
            # taller
            if ($height > $new_width) {
                    $width = ($new_height / $height) * $width;
                    $height = $new_height;
            }
    
            # wider
            if ($width > $new_width) {
                    $height = ($new_width / $width) * $height;
                    $width = $new_width;
            }
    
            $image_p = imagecreatetruecolor($width, $height);
    
            $image = imagecreatefromjpeg($file);
    
            imagecopyresampled($image_p, $image, 0, 0, 0, 0, $width, $height, $orig_width, $orig_height);
    
            return $image_p;
            
        }

i'm calling it by

$tmp = Url::resize_imagejpg('uploads/temp.jpg', 300, 300);

then

copy($tmp, 'uploads/thumb.jpg');

but i get the following error

Error on May 10, 2021 21:30PM - copy() expects parameter 1 to be a valid path, resource given in /home....

I know the file is their, i know its an image because i have opened it in an editor but i keep getting that error message

PLEASE HELP!!!