Numerous Nav buttons in side bar?

I want to put a "Grid" of square nav buttons (with rollover) in the right side bar. I did a search and found:
"Sidebar buttons HTML & CSS not showing" and,

Juggledad's: HOWTO: float a button over the header and have it change when hovering.

The "how to" was very helpful and I was able to get a button (with hover/rollover) I wanted in the header, But I am not smart enough to figure out how to apple that to a Text widget in the side bar.

My Side bar will be 200px wide, I want to have a grid of 18 (54px x 54px) buttons (six rows deep of three across). They would have 10px space between (so padding on all sides of 5px for each button?).

I have tried a few things from the two above threads but just keep getting myself lost.

I'm on ata353 and wordPress3.01. But still a rookie!!

Thanks for any help!!