How to incorporate tikz elements into latex labels without (xe)latex apparently hanging

Question

I am very new to TeX, and having seen the fantastic wine label examples I thought I would see what I could come up with for some homebrew which is ready to bottle.

I've got some Avery labels (MD4001, 4 labels to a sheet, each label 90 x 120mm).

What I (eventually) want to do is use these labels to produce 4-up prints of customised bottle labels. Tikz and the LaTex package for mailing labels looked like just the thing.

The problem is that when I try to combine \usepackage{labels} with tikz, the xelatex session hangs, requiring a break (CTRL-C):

*************************************************
* LaTeX warning: "xparse/redefine-command"
* 
* Redefining document command \oldstylenums with arg. spec. 'm' on line 128.
*************************************************
) (/usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/tex/latex/fontspec/fontspec-xetex.sty
(/usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/fontenc.sty
(/usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/tex/latex/euenc/eu1enc.def)
(/usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/tex/latex/euenc/eu1lmr.fd))
(/usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/tex/xelatex/xunicode/xunicode.sty
(/usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/tex/latex/tipa/t3enc.def
(/usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/tex/latex/euenc/eu1lmss.fd)))
(/usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/tex/latex/fontspec/fontspec.cfg)))
(/usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/tex/latex/xltxtra/xltxtra.sty
(/usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/ifluatex.sty)
(/usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/tex/latex/realscripts/realscripts.sty
*************************************************
* LaTeX warning: "xparse/redefine-command"
* 
* Redefining document command \textsubscript with arg. spec. 's' on line 25.
*************************************************
*************************************************
* LaTeX warning: "xparse/redefine-command"
* 
* Redefining document command \textsuperscript with arg. spec. 's' on line 28.
*************************************************
) (/usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/tex/latex/metalogo/metalogo.sty))
(./Example.aux) (/usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/tex/latex/tipa/t3cmr.fd)
*geometry* driver: auto-detecting
*geometry* detected driver: xetex
ABD: EveryShipout initializing macros
To print info, put `\LabelInfotrue' in the preamble
^C! Interruption.
\tikz@path@overlay #1->\let \tikz@signal@path 
                                              =\tikz@signal@path \pgfutil@if...
l.45 ]

? x
No pages of output.
Transcript written on Example.log.

The example to produce this was as follows. Can someone enlighten me if I have managed to do something stupid?:

% XeLaTeX can use any Mac OS X font. See the setromanfont command below.
% Input to XeLaTeX is full Unicode, so Unicode characters can be typed directly into the source.

% The next lines tell TeXShop to typeset with xelatex, and to open and save the source with Unicode encoding.

%!TEX TS-program = xelatex
%!TEX encoding = UTF-8 Unicode

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{geometry}                % See geometry.pdf to learn the layout options. There are lots.
\geometry{a4paper}                   % ... or a4paper or a5paper or ... 
\geometry{landscape}                % Activate for for rotated page geometry
%\usepackage[parfill]{parskip}    % Activate to begin paragraphs with an empty line rather than an indent
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{labels}
\numberoflabels=4
\LabelCols=2
\LabelRows=2
\LeftBorder=5mm
\RightBorder=5mm
\TopBorder=5mm
\BottomBorder=5mm
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{pgfornament}

% Will Robertson's fontspec.sty can be used to simplify font choices.
% To experiment, open /Applications/Font Book to examine the fonts provided on Mac OS X,
% and change "Hoefler Text" to any of these choices.

\usepackage{fontspec,xltxtra,xunicode}
\defaultfontfeatures{Mapping=tex-text}
\setromanfont[Mapping=tex-text]{Hoefler Text}
\setsansfont[Scale=MatchLowercase,Mapping=tex-text]{Gill Sans}
\setmonofont[Scale=MatchLowercase]{Andale Mono}

\begin{document}

\begin{labels}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node[
  text width=10mm,
  text height=10mm,
  fill={RGB}{248,240,201}
]
  (rect) {};
\end{tikzpicture}
John E. Smith
\TeX{}nician
3.14159265 Knuth Avenue
Anytown
Anyshire
H8W 0RD
Untied Kingdom
\end{labels}

\end{document}  

Answer 1

You can avoid the issue by saving the picture in a box and, also, by defining the colour ahead of time.

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper,landscape]{article}
\usepackage{geometry}
\usepackage{labels}
\numberoflabels=4
\LabelCols=2
\LabelRows=2
\LeftBorder=5mm
\RightBorder=5mm
\TopBorder=5mm
\BottomBorder=5mm
\usepackage{tikz}

\usepackage{fontspec}
\defaultfontfeatures{Mapping=tex-text}
\setromanfont[Mapping=tex-text]{Hoefler Text}
\setsansfont[Scale=MatchLowercase,Mapping=tex-text]{Gill Sans}
\setmonofont[Scale=MatchLowercase]{Andale Mono}

\LabelInfotrue

\begin{document}

  \definecolor{mycol}{RGB}{248,240,201}
  \newsavebox{\mypic}
  \sbox{\mypic}{%
    \begin{tikzpicture}
      \node[
      text width=10mm,
      text height=10mm,
        fill=mycol,
      ]
      (rect) {};
    \end{tikzpicture}
  }

  \begin{labels}
    \usebox{\mypic}
    John E. Smith
    \TeX{}nician
    3.14159265 Knuth Avenue
    Anytown
    Anyshire
    H8W 0RD
    Untied Kingdom
  \end{labels}

\end{document}