3. Bringing the widgets closer together so that there isn't all that dead white space between them.

To remove spacing from between widgets in the Adventure Journal theme, start wtih this:

#secondary .widget, #tertiary .widget {
min-height: auto;
padding-bottom: 0;
margin-bottom: 0;
}

Adjust the numbers as necessary.

2. Move the menu to below the header image and put my own background on it (removing the "paper" effect)

How to do the spacing for a request like this will depend on how large the background image is that you want to put behind the menu. To get you started, here is an example of CSS that will move the menu down below the header image with no background image:

#menu-wrap,
#menu,
#nav-right {
    background: none;
}

#container2 {
position: relative;
}

#menu {
display: block;

position: absolute;
top: 390px;
left: 0;
}

#banner {
padding-bottom: 20px;
}

To go from there, add in the background image to either #menu-wrap or #menu and then adjust the spacing and positioning as necessary.

Looks like you're asking about http://inkedincolour.wordpress.com/

Adventure Journal doesn't have the option I mentioned before, but you can use CSS to hide the entire site title and tagline area like this:

#logo {
    display: none;
}

1. Get rid of that title! How do I do it?

Go to Appearance → Header and uncheck the option that says, "Show header text with your image."

New to CSS and in real need of a bit of guidance - thanks in advance for your help!

1. Get rid of that title! How do I do it?
2. Move the menu to below the header image and put my own background on it (removing the "paper" effect)
3. Bringing the widgets closer together so that there isn't all that dead white space between them.

I look forward to your reply!!