You can do it easily with no plugins, there probably is lots of them, but it's all built into wp now, this calls the post thumbnail:
Code:
<?php the_post_thumbnail( array(265,265) ); ?>
This calls the title:
Code:
<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark"><?php the_title(); ?></a>
This calls the exerpt:
Code:
<?php the_excerpt(); ?>
It does have to be in the loop, you may need to do a fresh wp query for the posts.
This should work, complete without any css to it:
Code:
<?php $recent = new WP_Query('showposts=6'); while($recent->have_posts()) : $recent->the_post();?>
<?php the_post_thumbnail( array(265,265) ); ?>
<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark"><?php the_title(); ?></a>
<?php the_excerpt(); ?>
<?php endwhile; ?>