I bought it earlier this year and find that I don't use it. Maybe when I need to cut a whole project which takes serious planning (if you want to use it efficiently). For onesy-twosey cuts, the light-colored mat does not work for me. It takes me too long to line up everything and the ruler does not move as freely as I would like (there appears to be a sweet-spot on how high to hold the ruler before moving it.) Right now, I have to have the cutter on the sewing table and the raised wood board gets in the way. Last week, I put it back in the box to try again when I can set up a dedicated cutting space.