I didn't use any pics for this. I did draw the globe and casing at 1024X768 and then resampled down to the tile size. And then I skewed it a little bit too, maybe that's why it looks wierd? As for how hard it was to blend, it was harder than some of the others I've had to do because I wanted to get the same texture as the above tile, so it took some testing to get a result that looked similar. No clone tool was used.

well, I think you did an excellent job blending that top tile.. it looks like it would be hard to do, especially w/o the clone tool. I use that thing like crazy. personally, I think it rulz.
g/j, keep experimentatin' -g

I tried the clone tool but I'm not that practiced with it. I was constantly retouching where I had cloned an edge, and then everything turned out sort of smudgy. Aldous' tile has sort of a canvas feel to it so I finally ended up using a square brush with the wet option to mimic the vertical and horizontal grain.

damn u did zat
at 1024*768?
hmmm

Hahha, well, I didn't say I did I did a perfect job on it. I'll admit the shading is pretty sloppy. I tried the burn tool on it but it didn't give a very even shading. Oh well, it's a learning experience.