I’m going to give SimpleViewer a try on Wekeli to see how well I like it. If it’s handy enough and versatile enough, it’ll stay. Otherwise, the other option is something akin to Pixelpost. Which, by the way, is lovely in action (see Firda Beka Photography as an exquisite example).
CSSeasy has a great set of quick examples of various layouts using CSS. They’re a nice way to jump start a design if you have an idea but aren’t certain of the best way to move forward with it. Very simplistic but sometimes it’s the basics that stop you from starting. 
I don’t know what they really are but this is my inspiration for a new theme:
I’m planning on cropping it though. See the note on the Flickr page to see my idea.
There are times when I find myself looking at a design and wondering how on earth that person put it all together. I’m not a big fan of simply stealing someone’s code (and thus, hard work) so I tend to try to find my own way to recreate it. Sometimes I’m successful, sometimes I’m not. It’s this type of learning attitude that makes me fall in complete love with WPDesigner. Not only does Small Potato offer a lovely collection of themes, there’s also plenty of tips and tricks to show you (step by step, I might add) how to achieve some rather cool stuff in CSS. I can not wait to delve further into it and put some of the information into some new themes! 
I think I might give the Sandbox Designs Competition a go! It looks like fun although it will be a bit challenging. I like pretty things. Thus, I like to use photos and graphics through out my designs. Creating something simplistic can be beautiful but the closest I’ve ever come is this:
Which isn’t bad but still relies heavily on the image to carry the theme. Anyway, as I said, I think I’ll give it a shot and see how it turns out. Obviously I’ll post any designs I do up here, but you can catch the others via the results after June 29, 2007.