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Part I: Plain Ol' Plaid
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1. Begin by creating a new image. It can be any size that you would like, as long as you keep the height & width the same, which should make a square shape. The background (whether it is coloured or transparent) is completely up to your choice :)
For the purpose of this tutorial, I'm going to create a 110 x 110 transparent pixel image.
2. Now, since my image is transparent, the first thing to do is to create a background. To do this, select the fill tool  and choose the main color that you like from the colour (materials) pallet.
Click on the image to fill it in.
I've decided to make a rose-y kind of plaid.
3. Next we need to make the stripes :) To do that, I always like to maximize the image somewhat (as shown in the sample) by clicking on the bottom right OR left corner and dragging out slightly.
4. Then take your selection tool  and click in the space above the image. After that, hold the mouse down & move the curser below the image. You can adjust the width of the stripe you intend to make by moving your curser to the right or left as well. Release your mouse somewhere below the image.
You should see that the ants surround the outline for a stripe from TOP to BOTTOM.
5. Choose the colour of your stripe (which should be similar to the background) from the materials pallet & then using the fill tool , click on the inside of your selection.
6. Of course, now we gotta get rid of those ants! Simply press (Ctrl + D) and they should go away ;)
8. Repeat steps 4-6 to create other stripes. When you are finished, it will look something like this:
I've added a variety of stripes, each with different colours & widths.
Stripe Colours Shown: #fabebe, #ed7f7f, #b92d2d, #ffffff
9. Alrighty, ready to cross-hatch? First press (Ctrl+C) to copy everything. Paste it as a new image (Ctrl+V). It should look identical to the original at this point.
10. Now, rotate the copy 90 degrees (Image > Rotate > Rotate [Clockwise OR Counterclockwise] 90).
11. Copy (Ctrl+C) once more and paste it on the original image as a new layer (Ctrl+L).
12. Adjust the opacity of the new layer ("Raster 2" unless you've re-named it otherwise) to around 50%.
13. All that's left now is save or export as .gif & WaLa! Your own custom plaid design :D
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