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| 5. Our next step is to create a gradient out of our two new colours - but this is much easier than it sounds - in fact, as easy as 1, 2, 3. First of all click on the tiny arrow at the bottom of the colour icon (below, left). This brings out a tiny drop-down menu that allows us to change from solid colours to gradients. Now click on the gradient icon (below, middle). And voila! We have an instant gradient, made from our existing background and foreground colours (see below, right).
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Note: if you do NOT see what I have in No. 3 above, then you'll need to change your gradient settings. To fix this, click on the foreground colour box on the materials palette. This will bring up the main materials palette. Click on the Gradients tab, and change your gradient settings to what is shown right here on this page. Make sure the gradient chosen is called 'Foreground Background', as shown by the red arrow. If not, click on the scroll down menu to find it, click on it to choose, then click OK on the main dialogue box.
6. Now we need to fill our image with the gradient. Go to the fill tool  and click on it to select. Now move your mouse over the center of your image, and left-click to fill.
This is what you should now see: 
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7. Now we're going to jazz it up a little (and also, if we tried to use a plain old gradient fill for a tile, it wouldn't be seamless). Go to Effects>Reflection Effects>Kaleidoscope (see below, left). Before you hit 'OK', make sure the Kaleidoscope settings are set for default. You can do this by clicking on the reset button on the top-right hand corner (as shown below right). Before using any tool ALWAYS make sure it is set back to default first before you re-use it again - otherwise you could be in for a nasty surprise ;-) Now click on 'OK' and voom! One simple, but very effective-looking background tile that will be seamless. It doesn't look much by itself (see bottom, left) but it looks great tiled (remember what I showed you at the beginning of the tut?). Why don't you go and try it out? :)
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