Ok, I used to be a purist and would have to have everything from the cake board up be edible. Other than supports. I found myself recently using a wooden dowel inside the 4" heel of a gum paste shoe. I didn't like it, but it seemed the only reasonable way to have the support. Now I'm thinking that I might print out on heavy paper some labels and bar codes, etc. This seems wrong to me for some reason. Where do others draw the line? Was using a wooden dowel in the heel ok? Why does doing things like printing the labels seem wrong?

You can used edible images for the labels etc. - still edible that way! I don't think using non edible things for supports is a problem at all....what gets me is when over 50% of the cake ISN'T edible at all.