Thanks :-) I'm still in love weeks later with this piece.

Ugh, I can't figure out how to use an X-acto knife either. I really don't know how other people do it. My secret is Cutter Bee scissors. They are super sharp. With enough paper cutting practice, you get used to cutting large areas with the crotch of the scissors and moving the paper instead of the scissors. Then snip snip snip snip with the tips for the edges and finer details.