Oops! Sorry - forgot you were kinda new to PS. #2 - that blur filter was Filter>Blur>Guassian Blur - I think I made it something like 10 - something really out of focus, but not SO blurred that it has no contrast. To create #3, click on the little icon at the bottom of the Layer stack that is a diagonally split B&W circle - that is to create what is called an Adjustment Layer. Choose Brightness/Contrast. Up will pop the dialog box for you to lower the contrast, then click Okay - it creates a new layer that adjusts everything BELOW it. WHY, you might ask? Becasue you can make all kinds of adjustments with a seperate Adjustment Layer, and it doesn't ACTUALLY affect the layers below, that way you can change it or delete it later if you don't like it, and you haven't hurt the work below. It gives you incredible editing capabilities LATER in your work. #5 question - I just filled the layer (paint bucket would be easy for you) with a medium blue (you san see the general color I used in the Layer stack). I then chose a rust color and painted the globby streaks coming down. And the Color Mode - look in the image above - look at the upper left of the Layer Stack (even though the Crosshatch layer is selected) and see that it reads: "Soft Light"? THAT is where you change a layer's "mode". For #5, choose "Color" (it's almost ALL the way at the bottom of the list). #6 - duplicated #5 (which is why it says "copy"), changed it to Overlay Mode, hit "D" so my colors would be B&W default, and got my brush and painted black streaks from the top, and white streaks from the bottom. Yeah, I kinda machine-gunned through it knowing what everything meant - but didn't slow it down taking into account that YOU didn't know what it all meant. Sorry about that one. Hope that clears some things up- -Lew ;-)