[css] Background blur with CSS

Use an empty element sized for the content as the background, and position the content over the blurred element.

#dialog_base{
  background:white;
  background:rgba(255,255,255,0.8);

  position: absolute;
  top: 40%;
  left: 50%;
  z-index: 50;
  margin-left: -200px;
  height: 200px;
  width: 400px;

  filter:blur(4px);
  -o-filter:blur(4px);
  -ms-filter:blur(4px);
  -moz-filter:blur(4px);
  -webkit-filter:blur(4px);
}

#dialog_content{
  background: transparent;
  position: absolute;
  top: 40%;
  left: 50%;
  margin-left -200px;
  overflow: hidden;
  z-index: 51;
}

The background element can be inside of the content element, but not the other way around.

<div id='dialog_base'></div>
<div id='dialog_content'>
    Some Content
    <!-- Alternatively with z-index: <div id='dialog_base'></div> -->
</div>

This is not easy if the content is not always consistently sized, but it works.