for beads
try copper and black for metal beads also dont be afraid to try glass beads in the same sizes. fish see the same types of beads all of the time and something a little different might be the trigger that get the fish to pick out your fly rather than the 50 or so they see everyday.
also try using so flash in your flies. you can blend synthetic dubbing with the dubbing that you are using. i like to blend small amounts of antron or ice dub into my flies. i use a coffee grinder to blend my dubbings.
you can actually do a lot with a hares ear. you can tie them in brown and chance the ribbing to black copper wire and you have a good sulpher nymph. now that the dorotheas are hatching on the farmington i would have some of them in a size 16.
also... dont worry about that the flies look like. you will be making them perfect in no time. a good idea for finding new patterns is to type what you are looking for on google and search images. for example try blue winged olive nymph patterns some time. you will be amazed with all of the ideas that you get. print out the ones you like and go from there. also mix and match things that you like from some of the patterns and you will come up with new patterns that you will have confidence in. i hope this helps.