Eliu Hernandez of Broomfield, Colorado entered our video contest with this comment: “My sister, Eliza, is a Project Lifer and suggested, insisted, I enter your contest.” We’re glad he did! To create this proposal video for the love of his life, Eliu took more than 800 photos over 10 hours on a weekend. He used 4 boxes of crayons, a dollar bill, and a bunch of change. He also used a lump of coal that he borrowed from her dad a year and a half ago (an idea marinating in his head for a while) and a broken salad dressing bottle. It added up to a 2.5-minute video, a very sore neck and back, and a feeling of complete satisfaction for Eliu.

In Eliu’s own words on Nov. 22: I’ve enjoyed making stop-motion videos for a while now and I’ve been playing with this idea in my head for several months. I had a man-cation last week as my girlfriend was away on vacation for a few days. I showed it to her yesterday. It made her cry right about the time I got a bit of dust in my eye. She said ‘yes’ and we’re now celebrating with family for Thanksgiving weekend.

Equipment: Sony point and shoot camera & iMovie