I personally loved CSS3PIE for times like that. Of course then there would sometimes be complaints about rendering performance, and my answer was usually, "You can have working, pretty, and fast, but for IE you'll have to choose two out of the three."
I remember “feathering” the curves in Photoshop for a smoother finish to the rounded corners. My team, especially the new ones, would go -- heck, the trick, the trick, we learn a trick. ;-)
The struggles were real, and the fun was short and intermittent but worth every moment.
there was a way to use package image in a non-standard way (iirc using Offsets in Photoshop) and use negative background position to emulate 3x3 grid image with less elements. Was an advanced technique.
Yes, it's another technique. I can't find it right now (it's old masters technique). It's different from spritesheet or border radius, in a way that it requires image to be pre-proceed in photoshop via Filter->Offset, that basically acts as negative background position. This is to shift top-left pointer of an original image to its center. After that in CSS, you can use negative background-position to negate the image manipulation. Effectively it helps creating the right edge of a flexible element, which was difficult before background-position could be anchored to the right.
You'd still need multiple elements, but you'd have a single image (which is better for http latency/compression).
LOL clearfix.
I also never really had to fight with IE 6 compatibility, but when I fought it, it fought back hard.
Also explaining to designers why we can't do translucent backgrounds (also IE 6).