Uses sticky posts as featured posts in the front page.

featured-sticky-posts.php

<?php
  		
	// Número de posts em destaque
	$n = 5;
	
	// Recebe os sticky posts e os ordena por ID de forma decrescente
	$sticky_posts = get_option( 'sticky_posts' );
	rsort( $sticky_posts );
	
	// Verifica se há sticky posts
	if ( $sticky_posts ) {
	
		// Testa se já temos 5 posts fixos. Do contrário, preenchemos com posts cronológicos
		if ( count( $sticky_posts ) < $n ) {
		
			// Recebe os 5 últimos posts criados
			$last_posts = $wpdb->get_col( $wpdb->prepare( "SELECT ID FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE post_type = 'post' AND post_status = 'publish' ORDER BY ID DESC LIMIT $n" ) );
			
			// Combina os dois arrays e remove valores idênticos
			$featured_posts = array_unique( array_merge( $sticky_posts, $last_posts ) );
			
			// Limita a no máximo 5 valores
			$featured_posts = array_slice( $featured_posts, 0, $n );
			
			// A query
			$my_query = new WP_Query( array( 'post__in' => $featured_posts ) );
			
		}
		else {
			
			$my_query = new WP_Query( array( 'post__in' => $sticky_posts, 'ignore_sticky_posts' => 1, 'posts_per_page' => $n ) );
			
		}
	}
	else {
	
		$my_query = new WP_Query( array( 'posts_per_page' => $n ) );
	} 
?>