: Has anyone tried this?
I've dyed the cedar, but not individual strips of cedar. If you're looking for some strips for contrast, you're much better off just buying a contrasting wood that isn't cedar. I don't know how you'd be able to control the dye from staining adjoining strips, and you'd sand off the dye if you'd pre-colored the wood.

: Is there a difference is using a dye, oil, or water based stains?
You want a dye. Solar-Lux seems to be highly regarded and is what I used.

: How did or how will the stain effect the epoxy?
The dye seems to color the epoxy, but from what I've read and seen, it seems to have no effect on strength.

The link below is to my experience in dyeing a kayak. The image shown is before hatches, cockpit, etc...