Help me, help myself

[Dratai]

Okay here's the deal, I want to have a few communication/transmission bars for my characters. They don't have to be extravagant or anything. But I was thinking, since I have some experience with drawing and a few of the programmes myself, I was thinking I could do some on my own instead of bothering someone else (since I hate being a neusance concerning these things).

So my question is: does anyone have any guides/guidelines or hints for these kind of things?
A way to more easily make them, I mean. And not slap on some photoshop effects/text and call it perfect.

Simple, but cool/useful/nice.
Complex works too.
Any hints/tips, really. And think about it, this could be useful to others as well.
So you could easily hit me up for a "painjob" afterwards, for less than cheap/free, as a way to practice. <.<

Please?