To preserve the original mint look, you will probably want to create a separate user account for this. Do this under menu/preferences/users and groups. My desktop may not look exactly like yours because it was done on debian-lxde.
Login to the account you wish to use. Open up your file manager and get into /home/useraccount/.config and erase the folder that says lxpanel. This will reset the desktop on this account to default lxde. Now restart your computer and login again to the account you want to use for your leopard look desktop. When you login, you will see a default lxde desktop, probably with blue lxde wallpaper, or possibly a black background with a taskbar on the bottom.
Now for some pictures of what we are aiming at.
This dock only appears when you hover your mouse pointer over it, then it disappears when you stop. It will appear when you hover even if you have a program open so it is convenient for opening up programs when you have maximized a window.

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ImageShack.usThis is what the dock looks like before you do not hover over it with your mouse pointer.

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ImageShack.usNow lets do the modifications.
Search for horsehead nebula in the google images. We will use this as wallpaper. To find your resolution size use the exactly tab.

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ImageShack.usdownload it and put it in your wallpaper directory then select it by right clicking on the desktop and selecting desktop settings

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ImageShack.usselect your wallpaper then close it.

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ImageShack.usOpen menu/preferences/appearance

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ImageShack.usUnder the windows tab choose the cukoo-spit theme. If this is not available you should download more the ubuntu repos.

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ImageShack.usSelect the icon tab then select the gnome icon theme.

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ImageShack.usClose appearance then.... Your taskbar is probably on the bottom of the page. Select it, then right click it. Select panel settings.

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ImageShack.usSelect the geometry tab then select top to move the panel from the bottom to the top. The alignment does not matter since this panel is already set to be as wide as the screen itself.

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ImageShack.usSelect the appearance tab. For the background select system theme. For the font, click custom then use the eyedropper and click a dark part of the wallpaper then click the color block, to change the color of the clock font to near black. Close to save this.

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ImageShack.usClick the panel again then create new panel.

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ImageShack.usSelect the geometry tab. Select bottom for position. Select center for alignment. For height select 50 pixels. For icon height select 45. Width can very depending on how many apps you want to include. i have 17 so I needed it to be 80% of the screen.

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ImageShack.usSelect the appearance tab. Select solid color(with opacity)

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ImageShack.usClick the color block to customize the color. Select the eyedropper then click on one of the whitish blue stars on your wallpaper. My cursor is hovering on one of these stars. Then click the block, to select this color. Then adjust the opacity to 65 or so to get a more opaque appearance. You can adjust this to your personal tastes. You can make it almost invisible or very solid. I am just attempting to look like default. You probably dont want it completely clear until you get some apps on it, otherwise you wont see it.

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ImageShack.usClick advanced tab. Under properties Select ....treat panel as dock. Deselect reserve space..... Under automatic hiding Select Minimize panel..... Size when minimized I picked three just to be safe.

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ImageShack.usNow click the panel applets tab. Click add button. Then click application launch bar. Click add. Click close to save everthing.

Now we add applications. Unlike this picture there will be nothing in your dock at first. Right click you your new bottom dock and click application launch bar settings.

add your preferred applications to your launch bar. Then close to save.

Next we pick the windows and menu themes. Unfortunately openbox just does not have any themes that are very osx like so I just try to pick one that is complementary. Click menu/preferences/openbox configuration manager.

Now select the theme tab. My preference was for a theme called pixel-elegance, but you may think otherwise!

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ImageShack.usClose to save. That is it.
This will not have any 3d effects like osx does. Effects like cube, snap, and ripple, can not be done. For that you will have to install compiz-emerald and cairo dock or docky. Unfortunately, I dont have the 512 mb of ram on my g3 to demonstrate this, so I tried to create something that superficially resembled osx leopard. I think this does. If you do a search of google images you can find leopard wallpaper, but I do not want a copyright lawsuit.
If you mess up, an dont know how to undo it, you can reset defaults by opening your file manager and selecting /home/account/.config/ and erasing lxpanel, then restart your computer.