#1 suggestion. Design in black and white first. If you would've on this, it would come out totally different. Now you may ask "why black and white"? Because, it forces you to design differently. You're not relying on effects, you're relying on proper shapes. And it shows you where to put lights on darks, darks on lights etc.
For example, attached image. Just a quicky but you can design something like this, that becomes your base design, then you build off of that adding in all your foo fooey cool bling a ling and when you're done, you should end up with a much better product.
As it is now, your design is pretty weak and with the effects taken off, is a disaster. So... just my $0.02, best of luck and show us how it comes together!