Christell, I get the clone stamp, pick a small brush and click on the upper middle of picture. then I open a new file like you say. I make the brush larger and click all i get is the little bit that I alt+clicked on. If I make a sweeping stroke I just get repeating pattern. What part do you want a screen shot of??
I have also spent a lot of time on this and I cannot get very far...
First, should the clone brush have 'aligned' ticked? I suppose so.
I imagine that you only clone by clicking, not sweeping.
I have been unable to clone in the same part of the image, I had to open a much larger new image to clone the interesting part, then re-crop the new image...
This use of the clone tool is fascinating!
Edit:
This would be an ideal candidate for a VIDEO!