To make the language really stick, take out your vocab list and try to use as many new words as possible when you’re doing writing exercises, and speak the sentences aloud. That way you’ll get accustomed to using the words in context. Creative associations work for the memorisation stage, but the extra mental step isn’t practical if you want expressive fluency. A better way is to make meaningful connections - domus and domestic, for example. Or say the foreign word in your head when you’re thinking about it in English or see the object.

Verb patterns have to become second nature, and they’re not hard once you get the hang of them (at least in Romance languages). Repetition repetition repetition was the key for me- I used to recite irregular verbs in my head while doing laps at the pool! Again you need to use them in context, so try making sentences and imagining the actions with the relevant number of people eg. “nosotros cantamos” - imagine you and some friends singing.