Rock Climbing Gem Party

Rock Climbing Gem/Jewel/Geometric Birthday Party -rock climbing party with DIY gem decor, rock themed dessert table, and party favor ideas.

When my daughter Paige turned 12, she decided she’d like a rock climbing gem birthday party to celebrate.  We had an amazing time rock climbing with her friends, and then invited them all back to our house for a “Paige Rocks” celebration.  We used the idea of rocks to inspire a rock/gem/jewel/geometric party theme.

The party was amazing.  It’s so much fun to create, and to host birthday parties, and this theme was great.  I hope it inspires you.

Rock Climbing

We started out at our local rock climbing gym and the girls got to climb for a few hours together.  The staff members were great at teaching everyone how to suit up with the ropes and get climbing, even the first timers.  It was great that each rock climber at any skill levels could join in and have fun.  Paige loves rock climbing and had a great time getting to the top of the wall with all her friends.

After the rock climbing wall was done, we headed back to our house with some tired, hungry and excited girls.

The Rock/Gem/Jewel/Geometric Birthday Party Decorations

We set up the dining room for our birthday party guests to enjoy some “rock” inspired treats.

The Table

For our Rock Climbing Gem Birthday Party our color palette was pink, aqua, and gold.  I made a lot of the decorations with my Cricut machine.  Including the paper 3-D shapes that we used throughout the party area as decorations.

I adjusted the size a few times to make some bigger and smaller ones.

The Rock Climbing Party Favors

Each girl, had a special place setting waiting for them.

I used inexpensive muslin bags to make a goodie bag for everyone, and customized them with each girl’s name, so they doubled as placards.  To make the party bag for everyone, I used iron-on gold vinyl and cut it out with the Cricut machine.  They were really easy to make and the girls were very impressed.

Each bag was to hold a little gem necklace -which was the perfect little rock climbing party favor.

Other fun additions to party favor bags for a rock climbing party could be carabiner clips, water bottles, a small goody bag of rocks and crystals.

Gem Straws and Candles

I also used my Cricut to make the straw gems.  After we cut out the gem shape on the Cricut, we used hot glue to attach them to the gold paper straws.  We found a gem cut file that had two layers, in my Cricut Design Space.  I cut the top layer out of glitter cardstock, and layered it over another piece of cardstock in the party colours.  These little gems turned out so well, I loved them and so did the girls.  I was so impressed with what my Cricut was able to do.

We used the same cut file to create some vinyl adhesives for my candles.  The candles are from the  dollar store, and then we added the gems cut out in gold vinyl.  They looked amazing, and were very easy and inexpensive to make.

DIY Borax Crystal Decorations

On the table we also used lots of scattered rocks, gems and crystals.  We collected some rocks on our walks, and found some fun faux gems at the dollar store.  We also made some pretty crystals out of borax.  This tutorial was our favourite.  It took about a week for us to make them all.  We added some gold paint to some of them too.  These were such a fun addition to our rock themed party decorations and a great DIY for your own party.

We also added some pretty pink flowers, and some geometric gold candle holders.

More Gem Rock Decorations

Over in the entryway, I used a few more of the vinyl gems I cut out on the Cricut machine.  They looked great on the mirror, and easily peeled off after the party.

I also sewed some geometric bunting.  Again I used the Cricut and cut out some simple geometric shapes out of different colours of cardstock and in different sizes.  I used my sewing machine to sew them into a pretty garland –see my tutorial here.  I made a few and used some over the console table too.

To make the geometric shaped honeycomb decorations, I cut the round ones before they were unfolded -I love how these turned out and they’re so simple to make.

Rock and Gem Themed Dessert Table

The main attraction of the party was the beautiful rock themed food dessert table.  We had so much fun putting it together and the party goers just loved it.

The backdrop was made with a simple branch attached to the wall that we hung more of the geometric garland and shapes off of it.  The vinyl wall decals were cut with the Cricut machine too.  I used the same gems and layered the vinyl with white on top and, pink and aqua the party colors underneath.  We also made “Paige Rocks” out of the vinyl.  These all looked amazing for the party, and were easy to remove afterward.

The metal geometric shapes were some I used as Christmas decorations, but worked perfectly here with our theme.

All the party desserts were rock and gem themed, which was such a great idea.

The Birthday Cake

The cake was made the week before –you can see how easy it was here, and I just put it in the freezer and took it out the morning of the party.

Paige, the birthday kid, loved the succulents, so we incorporated them into the party flowers, and just added some pretty rock candy to the cake to tie it into the rock gem theme.  It turned out so, so pretty.

I served some fruit in cute little paper cups.

Rock Themed Candy

The rock themed candy was pretty fun to find.  We had classic rock candy.

I also found this fun rock popping candy, that the kids thought was amazing.  This brand was Shock Rocks, but look for Pop Rocks too.

And to go with the gems, some candy rings.

One of the prettiest treats of the day, a beautiful plate of donuts.  They sure looked great with their little gem pics!  For your own food table, use gem cake topper/ cupcake toppers to bring your theme to any food item.

Over on the other side of the table, more treats.

We made regular rice crispy squares, and cut them into cubes and dipped half on a diagonal into coloured chocolate.  They were simple, looked great, and were so yummy.

We also made some dirt pudding (chocolate pudding with crushed oreos) and topped them with candy rocks, and served them in little mason jars.   These were a fun way to use the candy rocks. They look so real, and taste great.  They’re chocolate inside.  They’d be fun to use for your own rock themed birthday cake too.

I wanted to offer some chips so I picked up a party mix and served them in these sweet little takeout boxes.  I wanted them to match the party, so I used some more of the vinyl decals and added them to the boxes.

Homemade Agate Slice Rock Lollipops

We also made these agate slice rock lollipops.  We used this tutorial to make them out of crushed up candy.  They weren’t too hard to make, and looked amazing.  The tricky part was trying to find colors that we wanted and flavours that went together well.  These are also great to include as rock climbing party favors.  Package these in cellophane bags and tie with ribbon.

Tips and Tricks

This party was a huge success.  If you’re considering something similar, I have one little bit of advice.  The rock climbing place also had a party room and dedicated area, and we considered renting it to keep things all in one place, but I’m so glad we didn’t use it, and set everything up at home.  

Hosting part of the party at home meant that we could make it really, really special.  I could set up everything ahead of time, and the 15 min. drive back to our house was no problem at all.  The girls faces when they walked in and saw it all, made it all completely worth while, that’s for sure, and I never would have had time to make it quite so magical if it wasn’t at home.  There was even something about the birthday child coming into the party space and seeing it with all her friends that made it really wonderful.

This is one of those times where the smile on the birthday girl’s face says it all.  This was the best rock climbing party ever!

With a Rock Climbing Gem Birthday Party, life really is a party!

More Party Inspiration

You might also like our Mermaid Themed Birthday Party here.

Also check out our Rainbow Art Birthday Party here.

You might also like our Ice Cream Themed Birthday Party here.