Paint Shop Pro. I used version 7.04 but if you are familiar with PSP, you should be able to convert the tutorial without problems. You can download the latest PSP version demo here.

You can draw the flower and leaves, but if you don't wish to do that, you can download my selection files and place them in your PSP selections folder, or a location of your choice. You can download them here.

Step 1. Open a new image 300 x 650, background color of your choice.

Step 2. Add a new layer (name it "1." You'll do the flower part first.

If you are good at drawing, or if you just want to try your hand at it, you can draw it - to do so, choose the draw tool, freehand line, size 2. Set your foreground color to #C34E94 and your background color to null. Draw a shape similar to mine (you could also do it as a vector if you feel adventuresome <g>).

If you prefer not to draw it, you can use my selection file (go to selections>load from disk and navigate to the location where you placed the selections you downloaded) - it's selection 01. Flood fill with #C34E94. Deselect it.

Step 4. Choose your retouch tool, smudge brush, with the settings in the screenshot. Smudge the colors around (use an up and down motion) just to blend them a bit.

Step 5. Change your color to #F0C3E1 and spray lightly in some of the blank spaces.

Step 6. Smudge. Don't worry about bits going outside the lines, we'll erase those in a minute. You should have something like this

Step 7. Now go back with your smudge brush (adjust the size up or down as you wish), and blend the darker pink and the lighter pink together a bit. Spray some more of the darker pink (#CF4E9F) in the center. Smudge. If you have any overlapping bits, just erase them. Smudging takes a bit of practice, but the nice thing about this flower is that it doesn't have to be perfect since it's an abstract rendition of a flower. Yours will not look exactly like mine either.

Step 8. Ok, now time to make the leaf and stem. Add a new layer. If you want to draw it, choose the draw tool, freehand line, size 2. Set your foreground color to green #3D7848 and your background color to null. Draw some leaf shapes similar to mine.

If you would rather use my selection, just open up selection 02 and flood fill it with #3D7848. Deselect.

Step 9. Add a new layer. Place it underneath layer 3. Set your foreground color to a darker green #5EAA79, and your background color to a lighter green #D9EBDF. Choose your airbrush, same settings as before, and spray some color on similar to mine (spray the darker color on the outside, and the lighter color inside). Choose your smudge brush (same settings as before) and smudge the colors until you have something similar to mine.

Now you can go back and touch up any areas that may need more smudging, more color, etc. When you have something you like, save as a master PSP file (that way you can go back later and change things if you wish). Then, hide the background and merge all visible layers. Voila, all done!

If you want to make a bunch of roses, as I've done (see the top of this page), just duplicate your rose, copy and paste it as new layers. I've mirrored and rotated them a bit, as well as erased a bit of the stems.

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial. Please let me know if you experience any difficulties ;o)