my experience with photoshop image blending is a bit shallow and i seriously could use some tips. so, what are your most effective/efficient ways to blend images together on photoshop?

I use a large soft brush to erase edges to blend images together. To make some things not seem too faded, adding busy backgrounds (whichever works best w/ the images), such as textures.

When I have large images and want a really fluid transition, I first select an area to feather and then delete that. Then, I follow through with the soft edge + airbrush effect eraser and take care of stuff I missed.

can i ask how do you make a blend in photoshop 7?

^ Well, that's what I was actually asking. And yes, I have PS7.
I've googled, and there are various ways but most of them involve gradients and layer masks, or else brush tools.

Well, to make a simple blend, I usually use the eraser tool. This tut started me out:
http://www.createblog.com/tutorials/tutorial.php?id=30
Except what I do is a bit different when it comes to different images, but yeah, still. And I'd show you one of my results from that tut (plus added designs so it doesnt look plan), but I can't find it. If you need help, you can just PM me or ask here.