Adding watermark to cards?

Hello all! I'm excited to post the first subject on our Q&A portion of the site.... and it is a good Q!

The creative artist behind TiddlyInks digital stamps recently posted a comment on her FB page reminding people to be cautious when posting photos of their work to FB and especially Pinterest. She, and several other stampers, shared stories of how their images- and photos of finished cards- had been stolen by others and posted on blogs, etc. They strongly encouraged us to watermark our cards... and not ever post digital images that are not colored as they are often stolen. (I knew about not posting B&W digital images, or photos of B&W stamped images as both are copyright violations- unless they are digital freebies).

So... the question for my friends here is how does one include a watermark on a photo of a stamped image?
On the TiddlyInks FB page there were a few apps mentioned. But... I don't have a phone that provides apps... so am seeking advice. I know that a few of you do have watermarks on your card photos, so can you direct me to some sites, tutorials, etc. that might help. I am still pretty new at Pinterest, but do want to make sure to watermark the cards I make in order to protect the companies that are providing me the wonderful images that I am using!
Thanks!

I use Photoshop or Illustrator, but most people don't have that. I would imagine that you should be able to do this in any program that allows you to work in layers. You simply type whatever you want to use at your watermark. You chose the tool that allows you to change the opacity and place it on top of your card.

I would think there should be a button on an app that does it, but I don't know about that. I know this isn't really helpful, but it is all I can offer. I am not a app person, so can't help there. Have you "Googled" it?

Marilyn

You guys probably get tired of seeing it but I almost always make sure my "Created by S E Hirsch" is on all my photos that I post of my work. A lot of the photo editing programs have this option. It may not say water mark but may say "add text" as the option. While in the add text feature you can usually pick the font you want as well as the color and amount of transparency that you want. If you don't have a photo editing program that offers this option....one I would suggest that is free to download and use is Picasa. Totally free to use, user friendly / easy and has the option to add a watermark / text. Even if you only want to download it for the watermark / text feature....it is easy to use.

I haven't had a problem with anyone taking my work from what I know...but my son has. He studied in Italy one summer and when he came back he allowed his college to post some of his pictures from Italy on their site to help promote the program for the following summer. About a year later it was brought to his attention that a travel agency on the east coast had a travel brochure for Italy using his pictures. He never sold them the rights or gave them permission. Long story short....he found out that they took them from the school site and gave to their graphic designer to use in designing a travel brochure. Yes he did go after them and they had to pay him for his photos.

So it is always a good idea to try and protect your work when posting on the internet with a watermark. It will help from most people who don't have in depth editing skills. Someone who is highly skilled in editing photos can remove a watermark (I watched my son do it to prove to me it can be done). Isn't it terrible that we have to go to these extremes?

Gimp is free and has the ability to do this, too. My daughter thinks it is a simple program to use, but you notice I don't put watermarks on mine (probably should). It isn't difficult, just takes time.