sharpening question

Hi, I'm not sure if it's just me or not, but I use Photoshop Elements 2.0, and whenever I make my icons they either turn out quite blurry (even with a sharp screencap or stock photo) Or look really odd if I sharpen them. Ie: annoyingly blurry, vs oddly sharpened. Both of these were from good, high quality screencaps. It's not a saving thing, like saving it as a .gif or .bmp when it shouldn't be or another filetype, it does this in the program while making it. Is this a program error or can am I doing something wrong. For Sharpening I use just Filter>sharpen>sharpen. I understand if this isn't a common problem but if anyone has an idea I'd love to hear it!!
Thank you!