I have been through the tutorials on the W3 website and it seems fairly simple to follow but what I don't get is how I actually form a page layout with it.

I understand about formatting text and such but how do I lay things out around pages to make it look like a table design?

A site I've always found useful:

http://www.cssplay.co.uk/

If you check out the layout section it provides examples of various layouts using CSS.

My favourite site showing off the power of CSS, also contains valuable links to resources on CSS:

http://www.csszengarden.com/

Other sites that may provide an insight:

http://layouts.ironmyers.com/
http://www.glish.com/css/
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007...and-templates/

Hope some of these links are helpful.

Basically your question is how do I design using CSS.

Wow what a bit topic. Get some books from Sitepoint to get you started.