Pattern Development and Final Design - Secret 7

After deciding I was going to use aniseed as an inspiration for some sort of decoration in my design, I tried to make an Aniseed Pod shape using ground coffee, although this proved to be very difficult due to the odd shape of the pod, so I decided I'd make the parts separately, which was much easier. Below are my attempts to do so.

In all the applications of the aniseed patterns I've edited the heart by removing the grainy bits around the edges. I did this because I didn't want the patterns to clash with the extra bits of coffee in the initial photo, as that might mess up the repetition of the patterns.

My first attempt to use them looked far to cutesy and
I feel really detracts from the sense of emotion that
was present before the pattern was added. I put this
down to the background patterns being too large.

When I made them smaller it didn't really change much,
if at all. Personally I think just makes the sleeve look
cluttered, which again detracts from the emotion.

I then experimented with fades, but I felt this looked
more like I'd given the image a border, which wasn't
really what I was going for.

In the end I decided not to use the patterns, as I felt
that any way I tried to apply them in, they felt like they
had less of an emotional impact. Initially I was a bit
unsure about using such a plain and simple design,
but after my research on album/single covers, I'm a lot
happier now about using it. I have however decided to
stick with my decision to remove the grainy effect as I
feel this looks a lot more clean-cut like most of the
covers I liked when I was doing my research.