[ LAYOUTS VS. WALLPAPERS ]
As someone who enjoys making both layouts and wallpapers, I find that the two processes are NOTHING alike. Even though some of my layouts have inspired or been inspired by wallpapers that I made, I still don't think layouts and wallpapers are equivalent, that if you are good at making layouts, wallpapers should be easy and vice-versa. There are a lot of webdesigners out there that I admire immensely yet make less-than-pretty wallpapers and the reverse also exist.

Wallpapers, in my experience are easier to make because of one simple thing: You don't have to make room for text. That's the hardest part in making layouts, for me, because I tend to cover the whole canvas with something and the something often gets in the way of the text or have colors that contrast too much or too little with the font color. Also, once I have an image, I detest cutting out parts of it to make room for a column or whatever. Also, wallpapers have well-defined borders or sizes, unlike layouts where I have to consider browser sizes and such. If I make a layout that's too plain, higher resolutions will display acres of empty space and that's just boring, isn't it? On the other hand, if I crowd the layout too much, it will look too busy and claustrophobic in lower resolutions. Finding the balance is very challenging.