Add image to left of text via css

.create
{
background-image: url('somewhere.jpg');
background-repeat: no-repeat;
padding-left: 30px;  /* width of the image plus a little extra padding */
display: block;  /* may not need this, but I've found I do */
}

Play around with padding and possibly margin until you get your desired result. You can also play with the position of the background image (*nod to Tom Wright) with "background-position" or doing a completely definition of "background" (link to w3).

Very simple method:

.create:before {
content: url(image.png);
}

Works in all modern browsers and IE8+.

Edit

Don't use this on large sites though. The :before pseudo-element is horrible in terms of performance.

Try something like:

.create
 { 
  margin: 0px;
  padding-left: 20px;
  background-image: url('yourpic.gif');
    background-repeat: no-repeat;

}