This plugin gives the look of a magazine-style website with thumbnails and excerpts in a clean layout. Thumbnails are generated automatically, and there is a settings page to set an unholy amount of options. (Really, it’s out of control and I’m sorry.) The latest release also has a “featured post” add-on so you can specify any post you want or just the most recent one to be put in the featured post box. You can also add a css popup for the image that includes the post title and 
Are you using Thesis from DIYThemes.com? Easily place your Recent Visual Posts by simply inserting your desired Thesis hook on the settings page. No code changes needed.
This plugin uses a slightly modified version of the excellent Image Extractor plugin found at <a href="https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/image-extractor/" rel="ugc">wordpress.org/extend/plugins/image-extractor/</a>.
<h3>I need more help!</h3>
Make sure you check out the <a href="http://oktober5.com/visual-recent-posts-plugin/" rel="nofollow ugc">plugin homepage</a>. If you need my help, check out the <a href="http://oktober5.com/forums/" rel="nofollow ugc">plugin forums</a>

Visual Recent Posts

Displays your recent posts with auto-generated thumbnails and excerpts; also includes a featured post and popup box option.

Constantin Boiangiu

CodeFlavors

Convert your current theme into a masonry style theme by simply using a shortcode or a widget. You will no longer be tied to a certain theme that implements masonry to get a good looking masonry layout.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="CodeFlavors Featured Posts - demo" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/174324022?dnt=1&app_id=122963" width="750" height="422" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write"></iframe>
CodeFlavors Featured Post allows you to feature any WordPress post type into posts and pages by using the shortcode implemented by the plugin. Besides the featured posts shortcode, the plugin implements a widget that does the exact same thing.
You can use this plugin to display any post type, be it image, regular post, page, WooCommerce product or whatever else.
To display featured posts into the front-end the plugin uses the templates it implements (by default, only 2 are available Fancy and Default) and also offers the possibility to create custom templates that can be used to display the featured posts.
Features:
<ul>
<li>Feature any post type;</li>
<li>Responsive options for displaying posts;</li>
<li>Plenty of options for choosing posts (post type, taxonomy, number of posts, skipped posts, template);</li>
<li>Compatible with Visual Composer;</li>
<li>Compatible with any WordPress theme;</li>
<li>Feature posts by using the shortcode or the widget;</li>
<li>TinyMCE editor interface for choosing featured posts.</li>
</ul>
Links:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.codeflavors.com/documents/wordpress-featured-post/?utm_source=wordpressorg&utm_medium=readme&utm_campaign=cf_featured_post" title="CodeFlavors Featured Post for WordPress documentation" rel="nofollow ugc">Documentation</a> on plugin usage and structure;</li>
<li><a href="http://www.codeflavors.com/codeflavors-forums/forum/codeflavors-featured-post/?utm_source=wordpressorg&utm_medium=readme&utm_campaign=cf_featured_post" title="CodeFlavors Featured Post Forum" rel="nofollow ugc">Forum</a> (while we try to keep up with the forums here, please post any requests on our forums for a faster response);</li>
</ul>

CodeFlavors Featured Post

Featured Post Plugin for WordPress with custom post type support.

Visual Recent Posts vs CodeFlavors Featured Post