Greeting card designers in Toronto cater to folks who appreciate the charm of a handwritten note. If you're the kind of person that prides him/herself in picking out a nice card for someone and would easily fork over a $5 bill (or more) for good design, you'll love to browse through the work of these designers.

Here are my picks for the top greeting card designers in Toronto.

See also: The best stores to buy greeting cards in Toronto

Smitten Kitten
Smitten Kitten's cheeky slogan "crush-worthy papergoods and gifts" succinctly summarizes their company. Their best-selling collection, Tomfoolery, features a monochrome illustration with a humorous one-liner printed in gold foil. The cards are printed on thick coloured cream card that scream "quality!" Available at various retailers across Toronto (including I Have A Crush On You, their home base).

Gotamago
Gotamago's cards are distinguished for refreshing design concepts ("All Star Couple"), funny puns ("You're the One Pho Me") and stunning watercolour illustrations. This "Warm Wishes from Toronto" card is particularly apt for an afternoon of writing to long distance friends and doing away with the winter blues. Available at various retailers across Toronto.

Flakes Paperie
Cards at Flakes Paperie are beautifully screen-printed and feature popular motifs like foxes, macaroons and pink flamingos sketched out in ink. Architecture lovers: be sure to check out their collection of cards with mid-century modern houses. Available at various retailers across Toronto.

Sea & Lake
Put simply, the cards at Sea & Lake are hilarious. Their designs focus on typography and feature one-liners such as "Uteruses Before Duderuses" and "I could have just texted you instead (that's how much I care)". Expect to find greeting cards with soft, tasteful colours, a signature of Sea & Lake. Available at various retailers across Toronto, including Scout.

A & C Cards
For cards that are as cute-as-a-button, look no further than A & C. Their watercolour designs center on adorable characters of all ages, with rosy cheeks and a point nose. The cards also star animals like cats, dogs and oh-so-huggable bears. Available at the Good Egg.

Brockton Village
If you love the look of hand-painted but not always watercolour, Brockton Village greeting cards are the ones for you. Their greeting cards sport varying motifs from dapper-looking cats to bicycles and bowties. Apart from their greeting cards, also check out their popular Taste of the Worlds calendar. Available at Scout.

Pablo Panda
For the pop culture junkie, there's Pablo Panda. Celebrity faces grace the their cards, edited with some pop-art style imaging techniques. It's hard to look at their Carlton Banks card without your thoughts going to "It's not unusual to be loved by anyone..."

Sweet Peony Press
Letterpress lovers rejoice! Sweet Peony Press offers simple and chic letterpress cards, mainly in black and white. Graphite pencil illustrations, fun fonts and quasi-mandala-like designs are some of the things you can expect.

Queenie's Cards
Queenie's Cards is awesome because of their knack for personified objects and puns. For example, an illustration of a deviled egg sporting a moustache is paired with the line "you're a handsome devil"; on another card, a little sashimi person declares to a bottle of soy sauce "you're my soymate."

Did I miss any? Leave your favourite Toronto-based greeting card company in the comments.