I use Adobe ImageReady for mine too. Sometimes I edit them on photoshop first, but most of the time I can do it all in ImageReady. If you have the program and basic (just basic basic) knowledge of it, I've got a psuedo-tutorial page that I found online that I can forward you the link to. (This tutorial isn't ideal but it helped me get started....and look where it's taken me, LOL!)
But feel free to PM me anytime, I am always up for making new avatars.
