Everything is the same as making a full sized quilt ... just smaller!
If you are wanting to do paper pieced minis, then just use regular PP patterns and reduce their size down to whatever size you want to work with. For non-PP minis, again just scale down your pattern pieces.
Here's my first mini .... and it was also my first Irish Chain ..............
http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...h-t189484.html