This is also here more for the tutorial, though it is a sort of interesting background.

This was created in Paint Shop Pro 3, sometime in the mid to late 1990s, and was one of my first attempts at a tutorial. It goes in stages, producing first one background or texture, then another, until the third is reached which is used as the background, here. There may be some inaccuracy, and a bit too much specific selection coordinates to allow for whatever slight variations from attempt to attempt. But this should get one fairly close. And it is more about gaining a familiarity with filters and features, than exactly duplicating this background, such as it is. This requires a couple of the free Filter Factory filters, as well as Blade Pro, a $25 beveling filter which has a few weeks trial period (when this tutorial was originally written).

So, to begin with the first image:

1. Create a new image: 120 square, 16M colors, white background
2. Set background color (R/G/B) = 134/182/247 (hex: 86/B6/F7)
   
3. Set foreground color = 134/117/96 (hex: 86/75/60)
4. Select Fill, and set it to the Linear Gradient, tolerance=16
5. Fill with the background color (right click to fill)
6. Change to the Sunburst Gradient
7. Fill with the foreground color at 43,43
8. Use the FF filter, Brown's Beveled Edge Blender, set at 152
9. Image, Normal Filters, Blur More
10. Using Klingman's FF Filter, Kaleidoscope II, set Divisions=224, Rotations=221
11. Image, Normal Filters, Sharpen More
12. Colors, Adjust, Brightness/Contrast; brightness=0, contrast= -4
13. Colors, Adjust, Gamma Correction = .95

And that's the stage 1, or the first image. You could try Colors, Negative Image, just to see what that looks like. What you can do to check these out, of course, is create a quick little HTML page, with this as the background, open the page and keep it open in whatever browser you use, and just reload the page when you've changed this background graphic in PSP. So you have the browser open, PSP open at the same time, and just switch back and forth between them. On to step 2:

1. Using Blade Pro:
      Bevel shape, 4th down in menu
      Radius=7
      Height=20
      Gloss=35
      Glare=73
      highlight is white, shadow is black
      Everything else is 0
   
2. Using my 'wrap' filter, found near the middle of this page (you need the Filter Factory filter, itself, to type in these formulas and save them as filters, either that or the FF Manager, or Plug-in, all linked at the bottom of the same page), wrap the margins around to the center - it's at the default horizontal and vertical of 128.
3. Kaleidoscope (II), divisions still at 224, Rotations=115
4. Sharpen
5. Using Tatsuya Sasaki's (Ilyich the Toad) Old Colour filter, red=255, green=165, blue=82, gives a very slight change of tone.
6. Select the wand and use RGB value match, Tolerance=60, Feather=0
7. With the wand, select at 89,32
8. Image, Special Effects, Hot Wax
9. Blade Pro, again, same settings as above, but with Glare=60
10. Right click to deselect

That's your second image. On to step 3, and what you see, here:

1. Colors, Adjust: highlight=100, midtone=32, shadow=8
2. DC's (Dennis Crombie) FF filter, Rich-n-r, set to Depth=75, Force=75
3. Soften
4. Blade Pro, as above, but Gloss=43, Glare=79
5. Wrap Horiz=128, Vert=58
6. Kaleidoscope, Rotations=66 (check out Rot=81 for another interesting effect)
7. Contrast= -4 (brightness=0)
8. Gamma correct= .95
9. Soften, then Sharpen
10. Colors, Adjust: Hue=0, Saturation=0, Luminance=2
11. Contrast= -6 (brightness=0)
12. Wrap 128,128
13. Wand, Tolerance=13, RGB match, Feather=0
14. Using wand, select 71,70; shift 71,38, shift 40,40; shift 39,101 shift 100,99; shift 96,44, to select the entire middle area.
15. Selections, Invert
16. Image, Special Effects, Add Drop Shadow: Color=Black, Opacity=200, Blur=10, Vert=2, Horiz=2
17. Selections, Invert
18. Selections, Modify, Feather=1
19. Soften
20. Set Feather=0 and right click to deselect
21. Soften entire image, then Sharpen More
22. Need to darken a small 'rail', so set wand tolerance=8
23. Using wand, select at 124,73
24. Gamma correct= .94
25. Right click to deselect
26. Gamma= .90
27. Contrast= -11, Brightness= -6
28. Gamma=.74
29. . . . and continue adjusting to suit.

I suppose this little exercise is also useful to point out how one can almost trip over textures without even trying, and interesting patterns, and so on, but that making a background is a lot more demanding, and more restricting. It's hard to say if this background is really all that successful. It's sort of interesting, sort of not. It would be more interesting, perhaps, if it were brighter and had more contrast. But then you couldn't use it as a background.