beside using just brushes, photoshOp Options

[Lj-Phresh]

ppl on here say "you just put brushes on it..nothin special."

what can you do to make your design look better?

[lovescream]

Since Photoshop has filters, layers, smudge, blur, pen tool, stamp, etc. you can use them to your advantage. There are so many filters that when you combine them, in different layers, you can get many many different looks. You can also blur/smudge/sharpen/etc. a layer, and on top of that, there are different layers modes you can put it on. It does make a difference!
Check out the tutorials for Photoshop if you want more of an idea of what to do besides brushes.
http://www.createblog.com/tutorials/index....oshop_tutorials

PS, stock images are just plain and simple images you can use to turn it into something different. There are some where you look at the before (stock) and after (finished), you might find the stock looking completely different or way enhanced.
http://www.istockphoto.com/index.php
http://www.sxc.hu/
^ the two stock sites I always use.