Frances, you or Gary may move this to another forum if you like. I through together a quick little "tutorial" that kind of explains what I was doing and why I though it was appropriate here. I do not think using the eraser tool or subtracting will achieve the same results but I am sure open to another approach. Since I trying to take the vine and weave it through the text (some portions if front and some in back - well OK, the eraser might work if done carefully). Since I created to bitmap copies, this winds up to be the same process of using multiple copies of an image to (one used to modify another).

This one is not as precise or as complete as the one I posted before because I just wanted to explain my processes.

Click image for larger version.  Name: DaveVineTutorial.jpg  Views: 371  Size: 94.6 KB  ID: 94707

I sill would like to have a better method of creating the vine so it tapers between the start and end.

Again, if it is more appropriate somewhere else, no problem. I am wide open to anyone who has suggestions as to the best method of achieving my final goal of weaving a vine through text. This seemed like a small chore when I did it manually with a pencil but has turned into a challenge doing it electronically