@RobA: Thanks. I hope so. I want to make some of the edges "creased" like the objects were made by packed sand in a bucket and some soft, like they were sculped by hand. Not entirely sure at this point how I'll get there but...

@Steel General: I think before and after would probably add something to the understanding of any P-A map...at least when you aren't familiar with the subject and can't look it up. At the very least I'd like to provide it on background.

@Immolate: Thanks for the tip. I used this technique to isolate some weird shadow issues so I'll go back in and check it out for this ghosting problem. I don't think it should be doing this if there aren't any pixels there.

Regarding layer styles, you're right, they're not really cheating or anything. I just remember seeing some advice somewhere about making sure nobody can ever tell what filter you've run on your image. Bevel is doing automatically what I'd have to do by hand to get the same effect...but, in this case, the effect isn't exactly what I want anyway so...

@wormspeaker: I most certainly plan on adding a sand crab or two in there. They were all over the beach. I'll probably also decorate with shells, seaweed, and maybe a few Army Men...as these things were used heavily in my sand castles.