Erase to background and blurring

[Blade]

GIMP Version: 2.10.22
Operating System: Mac OS
GIMP Experience: New User

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Hello all, kind of new to Gimp, coming from Photoshop that I used years ago. My two questions are:

1) how do you erase to background in GIMP? I have two layers, want to cut and erase some of the top layer to expose background in layer below but I am only getting the 'background color' selected on the pallet for the top layer (white in this case).

Question 2) blurring tool doesn't seem to work for me, after merging two layers I want to blend the lines to have a smooth transaction between the two images but blurring tool doesn't seem to do much. I played with settings but can't figure out these two.

Thank you!

[Erisian]

I'm not sure about the blurring but with regards transparency on the top layer, right-click the layer in the layers dialogue (or go to "layers" on the top menu) and select "Add Alpha Channel" Then try erasing.

[Konstantin]

As Erisian said, add an Alpha Channel for transparency.

The Blur Tool's strength is determined by the Rate slider.

https://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-tool-convolve.html

[Blade]

Both worked great, thanks for the help!