At this point you should have a round shell...try shaking it and see what you can hear. If you have no sound whatsoever then you did excellent! There should be no noise.... If it rattles then next time remember to fill it up a little more. If it rattles then it means that its not filled entirly inside which can allow the stars to move around and effect the shells appearance.
Ok this is personally my poison when it comes to fireworks. Round shells must be pasted to perform properly...this seals them togethor and builds strong walls. I've had a lot of trouble with this in the past but have finally got the hang of it so don't get discouraged.
I use the 2 strip mthod. Cut strips of paper about 1/8 the circumference of your shell wide. Trim these strips till half of them are 1/2 the circumference long and the rest are half that length.
Get your paste which can be thinned wood glue with water or what I use which is Golden Harves Wallpaper Glue. Soak these strips in the glue till they are soaked entirely.... Crumple the strips up a few times and resoak to get the glue in the grains of the paper.... This is called breaking in the paper.
Paste a full length strip from the fuse to the opposite pole. Then paste a half length strip in the middle of the shell so that it overlaps the first strip by 1/2. This is very hard to visualize I know... I will get pictures one of these days.... Continue this until you have covered the shell entirely. This is two layers on your shell! I would do atleast 4 or5. Idealy more like 8-10 for a 3" shell.
Let it dry and your shell is finished and ready for the lift!!!
The amount of lift is different based on your BP's power. It's differnt based on your BP. This is why you must test with dummy shells to decide how much you need. Personally I use 1/10 the weight of my shell. So for a 100g shell I would use 10g of lift.