design integration with X-Cart
 

I was wondering what the mainstream technique is for integrating a design mockup (eg from Photoshop, with layers) to x-cart skin from scratch, regarding the front-end.

What I have in mind is that we start by slicing the image in Photoshop and proceed with embedding the html/css code from the sliced parts of the design into the template files of an already existing x-cart skin from the installation package, which has a similar general layout with the target design. For example, if the design mockup has a 3-column layout, we start from a 3-column x-cart skin in the installation package.
Then, we proceed the integration, starting from the key store pages (home page, category/subcategories page, product details page, cart page, checkout page) and then proceed with the minor template files that render bits and pieces of the rest of the pages (eg news, breadcrumbs, mail templates, etc)

Any comments on the above? Are there any other suggested techniques that could be more efficient or quicker ?