First open a new image. I always open about 400x400 for general stuff and always the default is 16.7 million colors and a white background. (I keep my screen set to 800x600)

Now select the foreground color. Pick something similar to mine....for starters. A sort of chocolate brown. Remember, double click on the foreground page to select the foreground color. Notice that in the first image below, the foreground color is brown and the background is still white.

Select the fill tool...or paint bucket. Fill the new image with the foreground color we have selected by left clicking on the image.

Now go back and select a lighter foreground color. Do this by clicking on the vertical color scale on the right side of the color palette window.

Now, select the airbrush and the following settings; Paper=wood grain Opacity=20 Shape=round Size=200. I know that size 200 sounds big and opacity 20 sounds too small. But here is what happens. When you choose the large size, and the lower opacity, you will cover a larger area and that will make the effect more even. When using a low opacity you will have more time and be able to make minute adjustments to the shades of the image. This works well for me and I sometimes will set the size down to 10 or so and work on "trouble" spots to even them out. This is a very good habit to get into in designing your own backgrounds too as this will make them tile seamlessly.

Choose a small portion of your image that gives you the texture and definition that you want, and use the selection tool to select that small portion.

Now go to Edit|Cut (or copy), and then Edit|Paste|As new image. You should at this point, have no use for the original large background image, so you can X that one. The cutout section should still be there as a smaller individual image.

Open an new image with the same settings as the first one and this time choose a bold but generic color for the foreground color....like blue. This will be the temporary color of your text and then we will fill it with the wood grain pattern.

Choose the text tool, (A) from the tool bar and click on your blank new image. This will bring up the text selection screen. Follow the settings that are on the image below with your own choice of font and style.

Leave the text selected as in this pic.

Choose the fill tool from the tool bar and set the Fill Style to Pattern. Now click on the Options button and the Define New Pattern window will pop up. Browse down until you see the wood grain image that you created earlier and select that. You should see a picture of the wood grain image in the New Pattern window. Click OK.

With the text still selected, go ahead and fill it with a left click inside the selection. You should now have your image filled with your wood grain pattern.

With the filled text still selected, let's add some depth to it. Go to Image|Special Effects|Cutout.

Now you will see the Cutout window. Follow the settings below.

Go right back to the same place except this time choose Add Drop Shadow.... Image|Special Effects|Add Drop Shadow. Again, follow the settings on this screen shot.

OK...there you go. If you have any trouble with a bit of white showing up on the edges, just go through the process again. The second time will be fast as all of the settings are in place already. New image, Text and click ok, Then Fill with the pattern, Add the Cutout and Drop Shadows and there you are again! This is really neat when you are doing a list of names and want them to all be the same. PSP leaves the settings in place as you last used them.

Now you can cut the finished image out of the window to a more realistic size and save it as a transparent gif or a jpg. You can also put it in a frame and hang it on the wall!! ;^)