I did just that on my recently launched Pygmy Osprey. Not an inlay, but actually a bit of veneer. Mine's walnut and ash. The technique I used (there are others) was to cut out the pieces I wanted, then coated the back of them with regular wood glue and allowed it to dry. This worked as a sort of iron-on glue when I wanted to put it on the boat.

Other folks use epoxy to do the gluing, and plastic wrap to hold everything in place while the glue sets. That may be a better technique, but I didn't learn of it until after I was done. Search on 'veneer' in the archives and you'll find plenty of info. Folks have also done similar decoration using designs printed on rice paper (I did my hull ID that way), or even full-color printed on regular paper. I had some thought of that, but worried about color fading.

Not a great detail pic, but here's my rose: