Background behind swing item

[copthesaint]

Simply this, I want to draw buttons in front of a background image with swing, I have already attempted this is many ways however every (I have tried) has given me these results:

Image shows, buttons hiden behind image.
Image shows, buttons beside or underneath image.
Image does not show, buttons are shown.
Image shows, buttons are in front of image, swing displays a background color over the image where the buttons are.

could anyone give me a simple example of 2 jButtons in front of an Image, or background, imageIcon, image panel, image, or Label.
I would really appriciate it if it was commented too