The use of surface-adsorbed monodisperse polystyrene spheres as a template for forming nanosized particles is described. This simple, yet general method is applicable to virtually any material that can be evaporated or sputtered, and monodisperse particles in the size range from tens of nanometers up to tens of micrometers are readily formed. We will demonstrate its versatility principally through the formation of Au particles having various optical properties produced by modifying their size and shape. We will further show that by changing the density of adsorbed polystyrene spheres as well as adsorbing spheres of two different sizes onto the same substrate allows further modifications of optical properties. Particles formed by this method promise to find a wide range of applications to products such as optical filters, substrates for spectroscopy, sensors, etc.