⭐We're going through hard times, but always remember: the darkest night produces the brightest stars! ⭐
Coraggio Italia. Forza Lombardia. Noi siamo più forti: andrà tutto bene!! 

I created this card for my best friend who's struggling a lot due to the Coronavirus emergency. This is my way for sending her the hugs&kisses that the lockdown has made impossible to give in person. I'm really happy to share this card with you too, as I think everybody needs some encouraging right now and I would be so happy to hear that my card have made somebody else smile.



I made a similar card last summer and I got many requests about a tutorial: I couldn't make a decent video so I tried to make a photo tutorial, I hope this could help anyway! You'll find the tutorial after the card's description.


First of all, I made the galaxy background using Distress Oxide in Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet, Mermaid Lagoon and Blueprint Sketch, then I covered them with Chipped Sapphire and Black Sooth. Once I was happy with the result, I added droplets of water and splattered white acrylic paint all over the panel. Once it dried, I cut it out using two nested Sizzix rectangles dies and I made my Magical Shooting Stars Shaker base.

For the sentiment panel, I die cut a piece of black cardstock using a die from Mama Elephant Kingdom Trio and I heat embossed the sentiment from Mama Elephant Shooting Star using white embossing powder from Ranger. I made this twice as I decided to divide the sentiment 'cause its original size was too big for my card. I added the city lights using a white gel pen and I finally adhered the black panel over the background.





1- Set aside your border frame (A), you won't need it until the end. First of all, you'll have to attach your inside background panel (B)  and your "fake" background border (D) to your card base (C); I normally use some washi tape to keep them together and then glue them in place. By using both frames, you'll end up with a flat base: you could skip adding the outer frame, however that way your center part will poke out the base and the beads could get stuck in there.
Now add 1/4 inch thick foam tape all over the borders, as close as possible to the card outer edges to leave room for the beads to hide behind the frame. If you own a powder tool, I suggest you to use it all over the inner edges to prevent the beads from sticking to the foam tape.

2- Fun time! Take your threaded beads and choose where to start: I personally like to begin from one of the upper corners. Remove a small portion of the cover tape from the foam adhesive, leave some wire outside the frame and press your thread over it..


3- Take a few beads and place them inside the card. I normally use 3 or 4 beads but that depends on how big your beads (and your border) are.

4- Repeat step 2 with the other side of the thread and cut out the excess. At this point, I usually cut away the cover tape and replace it with very small double sided adhesive to secure the thread over the foam: you can see I used a red one here.

Now you just need to repeat the process until your card it's full or you're happy with the result. I don't measure anything, I just try to align the threads as much as possible: after all we're talking about shooting stars, so it won't be bad if they're not going exactly the same way! :D
Once you're done remove all cover tapes left on foam etc, apply another layer of foam adhesive, cut any thread excess and attach the frame (A) over the foam: this part is very important, be sure to put the frame on its right position or your card will look odd! IMPORTANT! If you want to add a sentiment, remember to add some foam adhesive under the middle of your sentiment panel: this way you'll be sure that it won't fold and the beads will always be able to go up and down.

Clo