(1) Create a fat16 partition on the usb stick and make sure it's flagged "boot".
(2) Unzip the gparted-liveusb-x.x.x-x.zip to your home folder or anywhere you like.
(3) Copy the CONTENTS of the gparted-liveusb-0.x.x-x folder to the fat16 partition you just created (sda1?).
(4) UMOUNT the usb stick and execute this command:
syslinux -s /dev/sda1
note: Your drive could be something else such as sdb1.
It also has cfdisk a fabulous commandline partitioning application. Sure gparted from USB is cool but is it necessary?
Possibly like you, I've also only ever used cfdisk and have thought that it's simplicity was all that is required. However, I recently used gparted from 2006-01-RC4 to repartition, resize (including NTFS), reformat etc my new laptop and I must say that it is very good. I was never a fan of qtparted btw, and found it quite buggy. However it may be time now, with gparted, to finally go with a GUI partition editor?