Massed Flower Background
This one is my favourite, and lots easier than you'd think. I just selected this little group of flowers and held the Ctrl key while I dragged and clicked repeatedly. I did not try to get the pattern “even”. Once I had a big block of flowers, I continued with the text mask part of the operation.
If you want to use these flowers, you can zoom in and change the colours to your own preference. Just don't use white, though, because everything behind would show through.
About White in Backgrounds
If you do want some white in a pattern, use another colour in its place until you've done everything else. Then use the colour rubber (white on right button, temporary colour on left button, drag over the picture with the right button pressed down) to change it.