Making tiles and other effects

In Maya when your texturing a scene you sometimes need a pattern like a brick wall or wooden floor so in photshop you have to make it so that when you repeat a square of bricks they fit together seemlesly. Below is my original image I started with, the brick pattern I made and then the pattern repeted. There are a few mistakes with it but as my first attemp I think it's pretty good.


Original image



My brick pattern



My brick pattern repeated

 We also had to try and create a weathered sign using layers and layer masks, below is my attempt and after having a bit of trouble with it in the begining managed to do it in the end.