: Combining several paths into one in Illustrator I have drawn this pattern, combining various elements together. It is a pattern that will be a papercut design. As you can see some elements overlap.

@Berryessa866

It should be easy enough with a few Pathfinder commands...


Select all the paths you want to merge (excluding any paths you want to "cut out". The centers of the flowers, for example).
Hit "Unite" in the Pathfinder panel.


Create a compound path from the result, this essentially gives you a single "path" (either Object → Compound Path → Make or cmd+8). You should have something like this:


Invert the selection (Select → Inverse) to select the paths you want to cut out and repeat the process of uniting and creating a compound path. You should now have two compound paths:





Make sure the path you want to cut out is on top, select both and hit "Minus Front" from the Pathfinder panel, then create a compound path again. You should be left with a single (compound) path:

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