[dsawler]

So, I think reading about design is a great way for you to learn the basics and principles (I highly recommend The Non Designers Design Book).

Once you read that, then I would suggest to start reading some well known web magazines, maybe like Smashing or VecTuts/PSDTuts to go through some tutorials and help you understand just how people use noise on a button, or a drop shadow on a button, etc. Then again, I think these things are sometimes over the top and used because it's trendy. But, you can make your own decisions.

A lot of people just use Photoshop patterns made by someone else for those background images (http://patterns.ava7.com/tag-beige.php,http://designm.ag/res...). Find a pattern, fill > pattern, tada!