I found the two most basic Blending tutorials but it doesn't show how to do what I want to do. How do I get the blend to go from the front object to the back object? I.E., I have two shapes, one "on top" of the other - not in different layers - just one in the foreground and one in the background. Every time I use the blend tool the blend goes from the back shape to the front shape, even if I select the front shape first. The thing is that my front shape has some water ripple effects in it - what I want is for that object to blend into the background object with out any lines so that I get the ellipse shape of my background, with the nice ripple effects of my fore ground. Attached is an example - as you can see, there is no "blend" effect between the two objects. Any suggestions on how to do this? Can anyone suggest a good tutorial on how to achieve this effect? TIA.