photoshop/imageready glitter text, outlining/stroking letters help Options

[lindakay]

i've attempted numerous times to make glitter words with a transparent background that are outlined/stroked but when it's posted on a black/dark background, it looks sloppy/messy? here's a screenshot of what i'm talking about.



no matter what color i use to stroke, my images come out looking like that. i've tried different variations of filling/stroking my text but still no luck and i've even played with the text style (crisp, smooth, etc.) after rasterizing my text type, i can't touch up/erase the edges w/o ruining the whole letter.

what can i do or what am i doing wrong? i referenced this tutorial but it doesn't mention anything about if you wanted to outline/stroke the text?