Boring 2D?

The purpose of this piece is linked to some degree to my Economy Drive thread. I wanted to see if it were possible to use a 2D application, (Xara Xtreme) and make the finished product look 3D-ish. And to do this without going to the trouble and expense of buying a 3D program and then learning how to use it. I have enough on my plate at the moment learning Xara Xtreme, Paint Shop Pro and Spanish without adding anything else. My success (or lack of it) is for you all to decide.
The project I chose was a piece I saw on http://www.boring3D.com/ which was mentioned in pauland's Boring 3D thread. I was enchanted by the work on display there and "Zombie Worms Love Asparagus" looked like the sort of thing that might be within my capabilities and experience with Xtreme.
The whole thing took me about 4 hours during yesterday evening and this morning. I must stress that this is not my own work in any way shape or form. Everything done in Xtreme with the exception of the blur applied to the asparagus stalk in the right foreground, which was done by exporting a .png of it to Paint Shop Pro to apply the blur effect. All the credit must go to Jimmy at http://www.boring3D.com/ who very kindly granted me permission to display my vastly inferior version here.
Saludos,
Bob.

That certainly has 3d qualities as I see it.

I've got some reasonable 3d effects using Xara, but then it does come with X3D built in now so technically that would actually be 3d software wouldn't it? Albeit not incredibly complicated and expensive 3d software.

Anyway here's a couple of my efforts. The House was done in Xara, although a few finer points were touched up in Photoshop. The @ symbol was pretty much done in the standalone X3D as I recall.

Nice job Bob.

Steered away from your favourite then... ;-)

Good job Bob.

Nice job Bob. You definitely got some 3D effects there.

I wouldn't say it was inferior. Looks good to me.
Not as crisp maybe but pretty good.