Emma with the kids holding masks made at the museum workshop - where the prizewinning postcard was picked up. © Chris Breese/24 Hour Museum.

A Northampton family have ended up with more than expected from a museum visit after winning a prize draw, but it was a close run thing after they nearly threw away the confirmation letter.

Emma Lindsay filled out an entry to the competition, called 'I Love My Museum', when she and her three children attended a half-term workshop at Northampton Museum and Art Gallery.

Weeks later a letter arrived at their home telling them they had won the top prize of a wide screen television.

The Giant TV gets unwrapped. ©Chris Breese/ 24 Hour Museum.

The competition was devised as part of a new museum marketing strategy funded by the East Midlands museums Hub, which is part of Renaissance, the national museums development scheme to promote the work of regional museums. Each entrant simply had to fill out a postcard available in local museums free-of-charge.

Emma, 40, added: "I just saw the postcards on a stand and decided to enter on a whim, I didn't expect to win at all."

She originally took her children Jack Kelly, seven, Rosie Kelly, five, and Flora Kelly, two, to the museum to take part in a mask-making workshop specially arranged for the half-term holidays.

Jack added: "Scrap Heap Challenge is my favourite program but I also like Blue Peter. I can't wait to watch them on it."

Chris Breese is the 24 Hour Museum Renaissance Student Writer in the East Midlands region. Renaissance is the groundbreaking initiative to transform England's regional museums, led by MLA, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.