Makita,

To change the opacity of a layer:
1. Make sure your layer is selected in the layers palette.
2. At the top right of the layers palette is a slider for opacity. Click the arrow to the right of where is shows 100% and drag the slider to the left.

To texturize your background:
1. Make sure the background is selected
2. Go to Filters>Texturizer - a screen will pop up with options. You can choose one of the PSE textures and adjust it using the slider or you can load your own psd file as a texture by choosing Load Texture from the drop down menu.

Hope that helps!
Jodi

__________________
~ Jodi