I have to agree with you... The blending was way too tedious for me, but I thought it looked okay otherwise... Thanks for the comments.
And what's with the blue bg-thing on the second version? Looks good for your first in a few months tho...
I definitely got a sense of fear from it, lol. But anyway, I like it for th emost part. It has good lighting and background is pretty good, though as people have already said, the blending isn't much to brag about. I like the text thoough, it fits in well. It probably could've used some kind of border. My rating: 8.5/10
Added a version with my favorite border, blending is out of the question but yeah. Thanks for the comments!