I have been working in Build Your Own Web Site the Right Way and have started in on Everything You Know About CSS is Wrong. In both books they have images that are tiny strips of color that get stretched out to put background colors behind things like navigation blocks. They get stretched out by repeating them along the x-axis or y-axis depending on what effect is desired. Neither book says where one can obtain or create these small but powerful images. Can you help me?
Thanks
Jeannie
They can be created in any number of graphics applications: Photoshop, Fireworks, MS Paint, The Gimp, the list goes on and on, but price will be a determining factor. Some of the ones I listed are free others are reasonable and some are quite expensive. 
Ben,
Thanks so much for the info. Do you or anyone who is reading this thread know anything about Photoshop elements. I hear it is a reasonably priced but less powerful Photoshop, but I might be wrong - frequently am.
Yes, it is a cut-down version of Photoshop with fewer features (roughly 1/6th) of the cost of the professional product plus some of the functions have been simplified.
If you are considering trying a free but very-powerful image editor there is the GIMP which several regulars in these forums like and was previously mentioned above.
There are also a blue million sites out there which offer free background graphics. If you don’t feel like fighting with Photoshop, GIMP, or other graphics programs, that’s another alternative.