Nice job! I never shaved mine, but the stiffener worked out excellent. I did the same thing and removed some of the foam, I also removed the arms and shortened them a bit, while they were off I thinned them out as well and added wire to the fingers. I then added an insert for arm rods instead of the hooks that it came with.
Luna does great work, but they were not really sold as Elmos, so some nips and tucks here and there really make a difference. I'm going to do the legs next.....
Did yours come with the ventriloquist entrance as well?