Help please?

Hi, I'm not too terribly new to icon making, but I could really REALLY use a hand with a couple of things that prolly sound a bit silly.

I mostly icon Supernatural and if you do it you know most of them are dark as friggin' hell. I was wanting some ideas for lightening them, but not going nuts with it.

Also, I'm horrible with text. I want to be able to add text and stuff to my icons or just make the 'Qoute' icons, but like I said, I'm horrible with it.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!