Poor render blending on the first one. With the dark outlining it sticks out like a sore thumb. I don't know why you lowered opacity on the left side of the banner, it hurts the general flow. And text placement needs some work, but I'm just as bad at that as you are. =P
The second one is good, though. Generally decent blending and color choices, same problem with the text, but definitely better than the first.