i checked the tutorials post and a few litestep sites, but nowhere seems to have any tutorials on how to create your own theme.

looks like im going to have to do it the hard way

well you could read mojomonkee's tutorial (you can find it in the tutorials thread) and there's some information in lstm's help ;)

search on google for "darkfyre litestep theme". he has a half-finished litestep theme creating tutorial.