Making a background: Choose a picture-copy the picture..paste as a new image-resize making sure height is 150..then copy..then make new background 1040 x 150...paste this picture as a new selection on to the background...choose a color you like and flood fill the background area. Save as a gif.

Bring the picture back up again making sure you choose 16 million colors and make your separator bar with dropper and paint brush.

You can take this separator bar..once made and copy and paste to the other side of this background also. Remember to save your work often.

Now you have a bordered background. Some of these steps are optional.

To make the header...take your selection tool drag and drop from top left corner to a distance of 500 x 150 and then copy and paste as a new image. You will have a new picture here. With this..choose a color and with your text tool Type what you want on the header. Here I have used 3 colors to make the welcome, placing one on top of the other slightly staggered.

You can add a border, leave as is..or buttonize..Your option.
Next lesson will be how to make the buttons and the bars.