Blog-Illiterate

I've been wanting to try to "fancy up" my blog page (just trying to be as cute and creative as all my other blogger buddies) but have been scared to do it since I really don't know how. I finally decided to mess around with my background praying intensely that I don't screw anything up and lose all my information. That would seriously cause me to have a meltdown. So the background kind of worked out and I still have my information but how in the world do I get rid of the blog post background and the side bar color scheme? (It is part of my previous background.) Is there a book Blogging for Dummies because I sure could use it. Help, anyone?