Transparent troubles (haha)

Ok, is there a way to blend one picture into another, but without having both look transparent, only one?? Example- I took an icon, and wanted to add transparent text. So I made a new file, made the text in it with a transparent background, pasted it over my icon, and tried the blending options. The text only fades into the picture if the picture fades back as well. Then I tried 'underlying layer' but that only makes the text either appear, or not. Urrg,,, oh, and I'm really new at this, and I don't know very much about layers or anything like that :(. So speak nice and slow, hehe. Oh, and I only use PS6... thanks for any help!