Hi, liquidambient.
That Vellum menu item isn’t supposed to be there. Please update to the latest version of the theme, which is version 1.0.1:
http://para.llel.us/support/groups/vellum/forum/topic/latest-version-vellum/
I think this will also fix the problem with no demo content in the layout manager.
If you haven’t added your own content yet, rather than updating the theme I’d recommend that you start again with a new WordPress database and install the Vellum theme from scratch, then import the demo content.
If you have issues with importing the demo content we have a topic currently discussing this…
http://para.llel.us/support/groups/vellum/forum/topic/demo-data-not-loading/
Please feel free to continue the discussion in that topic if you need to.