Its easy to make your own buttons and skins with a program like Photoshop (which I use daily), but I also use open source software for some tasks which is often free. A programme called GimpShop functions similar to Photoshop and is free. I haven't used it myself, but you may find it worth having a look at. This link will take you to a central source for lots of open source commercial alternitives, so you may find other applications worthy of consideration here.