How to blend a vector image into characters or text.

Hi, I am working on a T-shirt design and I am trying to blend a tree into the words of the design as seen in the picture attached. What kinds of tools in Illustrator do

I need to be using? I think it may have something to do with a clipping mask but the problem is I also want part of the tree to stick out of the words so a clipping mask might confuse that idea. Any thoughts? Thank you.