Country Square Background

This tutorial was done in PSP9, but you should be able to do it in 7 or 8.

We will be making the outside tile on this page. If you want to use my heart in your tile, right click and save my heart to your computer.
 
We'll also be using my Simple background tile so if you haven't done that tutorial yet, be sure to do it.
Open the heart in The animation shop then go to File>>Export Frames>>To Paint Shop Pro

Let's get started.
Open a new transparent canvass, 50x50.
Zoom in more so you'll be able to see what you're doing.
Click on your Selection tool.
Use the default settings, then click on Custom Selection.
Keep top and left at 0, right and bottom at 25.
Click ok.
Set your background color to a deep red. I'm using #7e4242 and flood fill the selection.
Deselect
Click the Lighten/Darken tool and use these settings>>
size 18
Hardness 35
Step 25
Density 100
Opacity 100
Put your paint brush in the center of the tile and kind of do one swoop in a circle. You don't want to lighten the entire square. Just the middle.
Duplicate the layer.
Mirror>>Flip
Merge visible.
Use your magic wand and select one of the empty squares. Hold the shift key down and select the other empty square. You should now have marching ants around both empty squares.
Add a new layer.
Be sure your simple background tile is  open. Click your foreground color>>other>>Patterns and find your simple background tile.
Angle 0
Scale 100
And click ok.
Flood fill the two empty squares then deselect.
You can save your tile at this point, just in case you decide to use different graphics in the square, then continue on.
Add a new layer.
Click on your heart. You can either tube it, then scale it to 50 to use in the square, or resize the graphic by 50%.
If you resize the graphic, copy it, then click your square canvass and paste as a new selection.
Place the heart in the center of one of your simple background tile squares.
Paste it again in the other simple background tile square.
Merge visible, save as a jpg  and you're done.
If you tubed the heart. Select it, scale it to 50 and insert it in the center of each of the simple background tile squares.
Merge visible and you're done. Oh yah, don't forget to save as a jpg.
Any questions or problems, just E-mail me for help.