I am enjoying this so much! I like to make homemade greeting cards. I had never tried die cutting before and was put off by the prices of the software type machines. After watching videos and checking reviews carefully, I decided this was the one. It's seen heavy use in the month or so that I've had it. It's solid and sturdy. It's bottom heavy to keep things from moving around during use. While you need to give the handle a good crank to put things through, its not difficult at all. I'm having such a good time with this that I plan to start scrapbooking too. I may or may not be developing a die collecting problem!