I don't see how you could cut ontop of a bed. It's too low, and not a hard surface. Regarding cutting ontop of an ironing board, I tried putting my cutting mat there, and it doesn't work because the center of the ironing board dips down, resulting in crooked cuts---they bow out in the middle. I solved the issue by gluing the cutting mat to a same sized thick white kitchen cutting board. Now I can put it ontop of my ironing board and make small cuts near where I sew instead of traipsing downstairs to the large mat all the time.