Grunge Signature Background

1. Create a new document (I will be creating mine at 300x120).  Set your foreground color to black, and your background color to white:

2. Now we need to render clouds.  When we render clouds, it takes the two colors we set above, so it is important to select black and white in step one.  To render the clouds, go to Filter > Render > Render Clouds:

3. Create a new layer, and repeat:

4. Notice that it is completely random every time.  Continue to create new layers and rendering clouds for 5-10 layers.  Once your done, set all of the blending modes for each layer to Darken:

5. By setting the blending modes to darken, we get rid of the white and just leave the darks.  Select the eraser tool from the toolbar, and select a nice sized grunge brush.  On the top layer, begin clicking randomly over the image to get rid of some of the clouds:

6. Repeat for all the layers below the top one except for your bottom layer:

7. Your results should appear a bit like the ones shown above.  The biggest problem now is the fact that we can still see some cloud texture in the background!  We need to fix this.  Grab the smudge tool from your tool bar:

8. Start dragging over the background layer using the Dry Brush Tip Light Flow brush.

9. Create a new layer over the rest of your layers.  Choose a dull color of your choice and fill this layer with it:

10. Set this layer to color:

And that's about it!  Be sure to take our other tutorial on Grunge text to make a really nice Grunge Text effect!