Pictures and a wide variety of editing options...

Google comes up with such wonderful ideas. For someone who started of with just a web search, they seem to be floating amazingly ahead. Try out the options on Picasa2(http://www.picasa2.com/) for example. In combination with the picture editing that's supported on Vista, even a bad photographer's picture can be turned into a beautiful wallpaper! I specially liked the 'Collage' option on Picasa2.

Another must-try software is Scrapbook Flair from Aurora Digital Imaging(http://www.scrapbookflair.com/Download.aspx). The downloadable version comes with quite a large number of templates, background and embellishments. With a wee bit of design idea help from Scrapbook and the rest from your imagination, the outputs can be as simple or as bold as you want.

Here's one I made with a picture of my team at work. Totally loved the simplicity.