Submitted for your perusal.

[Shelley_c]

LOL - wipes away the tears.

Bit of advice, if your new to styling you can effectively make simple colour changes in your styles css which will compete with the many graphical styles you see around. Sometimes, simplicity is the solution vs the knowledge you have until you evolve in your learning abilities and become more creative in your implementations which will yield a more satisfying solution.

[TC Topps]

Kind of a nifty idea. Maybe dark blue letters or black but not yellow or red. Maybe some slightly darker shaded box transparencies behind some areas where text is visible to give a more solid feel. Not to much or it will get a cluttered or to heavy feel. Just enough to make the text more legible.

First start with the blue letters as an example then set off some text with the box suggestion. So that we can look at the differences.

Have Fun!

[TheLastSuperman]

Too wide (forum innards lol) and background... just remember light images w/ dark font and vide-versa so they can always see the text and links well.