I am not an artist, so I may not be able to post my own creations. I will try though :)
1. I was testing SkinStudio 6 on Vista x64 with WB6. I created a verical image for the vertical task bar with a simple gradient from top to bottom. I wanted to stretch this image for the task bar. I could not get this working in SkinStudio 6. Not sure if this is a SkinStudio6 problem or WB6 problem.

2. For the vertical task bar, edit the task bar background image and just fill it completely with one color. Edit the start button and fill it with another color. Make sure you have colors that is do not match with wallpaper or desktop background. Don't use the glow at all. Apply the theme. In my test, the taskbar was on the right side. I saw the start button sticking out. Did not spent a lot of time figuring out why.

// Changing the category to see if I can get the attenstion of someone from SD
Comments
on Oct 22, 2007
to complex for me  

on Oct 23, 2007
I will post an image with details.