Take a peek at Mongoose's Encyclopedia Arcane - Elementalism. A non-standard approach at making elemental mages, but interesting nevertheless.
I personnally like the "techniques" which allow trading prepared spells for some cool effects. It's quite balanced, IMHO, as the effects are generally weaker in power than the spells you burn, but you gain flexibility. And there's capturing/using elementals, etc.
The rules can be changed to give "Elementalist" powers as a PrC. It is mentionned in the book that it's basically guidelines for DM's.
Quintessential Wizard has also Elemental Mage "Character Concepts". Much like a Specialist, but with elements, not schools.
Also, look at templates in the MM and MoP (or MoF). I believe there are a few there that might be interesting for flavor, if you're willing to have some +ECL (like Half-Elemental).
Andargor