Blog Template Tutorial

I was going through this tutorial - http://gimp-tutorials.net/blog-theme-design-with-gimp - and I'm a bit confused on step #10. Overall, the tutorial proves to be helpful and easy to follow along.

What are background brushes? I have browsed some on the internet, and some look quite nice. Yet, my question is .. are background brushes mandatory for a template? Can I make my own .. and how? (And do the borders need to be rounded?)

Sorry if this sounds a bit newbe-ish. I'm pretty sure I don't need a background brush, but then again - it would be nice if I could make my own background elements.

I'm willing to hear back. Right now, my template is the standard Blogger-based template (with some color changes, etc.). Not too happy about my header either.

-- Tenebris

For those curious, here is my blog URL. I would love to see it spiced up with a template that I can create and plug in with the help of the tutorial above ^-^
<a class="postlink" href="http://neverending-playlist-of-a-psycho.blogspot.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://neverending-playlist-of-a-psycho.blogspot.com/</a>

 

He's talking about brushes, in his case, floral ones.
Like you said, you were already looking at brushes, so you should be familiar with installing them. If not I can point you to countless tutorials for that.

What he did, he installed brushes (floral), chose a foreground color (color he wants his brushings). Then he made a new layer and moved it directly above the background layer, therefore below all your content areas etc.. Then he brushes on that layer with said brushes to achieve the effect.

Hope this helps!