Hi just a quick note about how to do the Shape Burst. I'm not certain that it will help you here, but it's a neat feature that I've found useful. In the Stroke layer effect, switch Fill Type to Gradient and then in the new options that come up just choose Shape Burst from the style list. You might have to click the Reverse check box.

Regarding resolution, you need to know what the final printed size will be and then multiply that by 300 to get the pixel size for your map. So if the printed size is 6 inches wide then your file needs to be 1800 pixels wide.

I hope that helps, and that you get this resolved satisfactorily, it's very frustrating when your layer effects don't act the way you want them to. I've been there.

cheers,
Meshon