How to crop watercolor paintbrush objects without ruining the outlook?

[Johanna5CA8]

I have created watercolor looking tree by using watercolor paintbrush tools, and created pattern from it by clooning it. Now only thing I need to do is to crop the excess parts to finalize my pattern. But when I do it by using the crop tool, the outlook of my watercolor-tree changes radically. It loses it`s watercolor outlook and opacity. Objects become normal 1-color shapes, outlook is not good.. So how to crop any watercolor paintbrush objects succesfully without changing the watercolor outlook? Pls help, thanks!

[Met1 · Accepted solution]

Use a clipping mask.