process of how i did the lace

I dragged in the pdf file of the lace flower i got rid of the white background in photoshop into illustrator 

I then rasterize the image as symbols cannot contain linked files

Always, make sure that the background is transparent, otherwise all the work you had just done in photoshop is useless 

Now, drag the symbol into the symbol panel and name the symbol, making sure that it is graphic

Do the rest for all your desired symbols and now you have your very own symbol panel to use! 

I slowly layer all the different types of lace flowers over the top of each other. I did not use the symbol sprayer tool in this illustration as there are a combinations of lace flowers not just one. I also adjusted the flowers by arranging them by 'bringing to the front' or 'sending to the back' option (object>arrange>)