The Air Brushed Rose::

What you will need for this tutorial is:

Jasc Paint Shop Pro Get the trial version here
(this was written in version 8 but could easily be done in version 7 as well.)
A love of vectors
The patience of a saint.

Okay the lets get cracking here,

The rose bud: #1
Lets begin with the center bud: open a new raster document 400x400 pixels transparent gives you plenty of space to work in, using the preset shape ellipse, retain style unchecked create as vector and anti-alias both checked, lay down an ellipse in the center of the canvas. Using #D58CA6 for stroke with a witdh of 1& #CE749C for fill.
Now click the pen tool and go into node edit mode. Drag a selection around the 2 center nodes with the pen tool and when they are both selected, grab one of the nodes with your cursor and bring it down to form a teardrop shape.
Click off to deselect the 2 nodes and the click on the top node, using the arrow handle, drag down slightly to give the bud some shape. Now convert the layer to raster and rename it "bud".
With the bud layer now converted to a raster layer, use your selection tool Shape-rectangle Mode: Replace and draw a selection box around the bud, when the selection box is there, double click your mouse on the bud and the selection will wrap tightly to your bud. You can now begin to air brush the outside of your rosebud using the lighter stroke color. It should look something like this now. I used the following settings Shape:round Size:35 Hardness:45 Step:25 Density:60 Thickness:100 Rotation:0 Opacity:45 Blend mode:Normal. Depending on your buds size, you may want to change these settings a wee bit.
When you have it to your liking, hit Ctrl + D to de-select the bud. Now change the selection tool to an ellipse Mode: ADD and lay down an ellipse shape on the canvas, using the mover tool and the right mouse button, drag the ellipse so that it half covers the bud and is half off it as well. Change the brush size to something between 5-8 and lay a light strip along the inside of the selection.
Deselect and you should see something similar to this. Looking good don't ya think? Phewww lets get some coffee and if there are any smokers in the crowd, lets twist one up. When we get back we will start the petals.