do you have photoshop?
when i had a greek buddy icon, i had to make it myself since i'm in a local. i just found some really cute symbols (yellow rose, etc) shrunk them down, and layered them. you can add text layers and shading really easily.
it's pretty hard to do the same with anything microsoft has to offer. paint doesn't let you have nonrectangular areas selected and also doesn't let you have layers. make the most you've got with that by having one big symbol, and then just adding text and a background pattern?
i hope you find some success in making your own icons!!
